THE JEWISH VOICE AND OPINION Promoting Classical Judaism
March 2012
Vol. 25 • No. 6
Adar 5772
“Global March to Jerusalem”: One Million Pro-Palestinians Will Attempt Invasion to Protest “Judaization” of the Capital In addition to the recent
uptick in incidents of Arabterrorist violence in Israel, ranging from car-jackings to infiltration attempts, the Jewish state’s security personnel are now faced with a new threat: On March 30, the so-called Palestinian Land Day, thousands of anti-Israel protesters plan to converge illegally in the country in a campaign participants are calling the Global March to Jerusalem (GMJ). The GMJ plan is part of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment,
and Sanctions (BDS) movement. the plan is for groups from different countries to march towards the borders of Israel in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and
Egypt. Joined by Palestinians living in those countries, the demonstrators intend to get as close as possible to Jerusalem and the Al Aqsa Mosque before they are stopped by Israeli security forces. “The concept behind GMJ is to have a million people marching on Israel’s borders from all the surrounding countries,” reported Adam Levick, managing editor of CiF Watch, an online blog dedicated to monitoring antisemitism. Other Palestinian supporters are being encouraged to
participate in rallies outside Israeli embassies throughout the world. Some GMJ organizers have used the word “besiege” rather than “rally.” “Crime against Humanity” According to the BDS website, the march “will confirm that the policies and practices of the racist Zionist state of Israel against Jerusalem and its people are a crime not only against Palestinians but against all humanity.” The GMJ’s website says its goals are to “end the apartheid, continued on page 14
Congressional Letter Seeks Justice for American Victims of Palestinian Terror; Rothman Signed, Pascrell Didn’t The differences between NJ’s
9th District candidates for the Democratic Party primary in June showed more clearly at the beginning of March, when 52 Congressmen announced that they had signed a bipartisan letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, holding him responsible for the Justice Department’s failure to prosecute Palestinian terrorists who perpetrated crimes against American citizens.
Reps Joe Walsh (R-IL),left, and Howard Berman (D-CA) tell the Obama Administration to prosecute Palestinian terrorists who harm Americans
Fighting BDS.......................................... 5 Kol Ami: Attack on Iran?...................... 6 The Current Crisis............................... 7 Rabbi Smith Runs for Congress...12 Qarmout Seeks Senate...................13 Zomet: Shabbat-Compliant..........16 Armenian-Genocide Essay............20
Inside the Voice
Syrian Scorecard..................................23 Biblical Beauty...................................24 The Circus’s Jewish Grandma.......26 One Israel Fund Turns 18...................27 The Log................................................29 Airport Minyanim.............................37 New Classes........................................40
Rep Steve Rothman, currently representing the 9th District, signed the letter; Rep Bill Pascrell, currently representing the 8th District, did not. The letter, authored by Rep Howard Berman (D-CA), ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Rep Joe Walsh (R-IL), a Tea Party favorite, calls for “prompt and meaningful steps to enforce provisions of US law” regarding
continued on page 42
Pascrell’s Anti-Israel Supporters..43 Ess Gezint: Fresh & Easy Kosher.....46 Index of Advertisers ........................53 OHEL’s Gala.........................................54 Honor the Professional...................55 Letters to the Editor ........................56 A Kosherica Cruise .............................58
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BDS on Campus and Brooklyn Food Coop and the Business Antidote That Can Render the Boycott Attempts Meaningless will meet to decide if it will later hold a referendum on the United States, Canada, whether to force the Coop’s and Western Europe were 15,500-plus members to join not the only venues for viruthe Boycott, Divestment, and lent anti-Israel activists last Sanctions (BDS) movement to month. While the University ban products made in Israel. of Pennsylvania’s “Boycotts, The goal of the BDS moveDivestment, and Sanctions ment is to ostracize Israel among Conference” and Harvard’s the nations of the world by “One State Conference: Israel/ placing it in the same catePalestine and the One-State gory as the notorious apartSolution” became for many heid regime of South Africa. Israel supporters “conferences Proponents of BDS hope that of hate” dedicated to the dethe political and economic struction of the Jewish state, a pressure resulting from such battle of equal consequence ostracism would force Israel to was taking place on the streets make unilateral concessions to of Park Slope, Brooklyn. jewish voice oct 2011:LayoutPalestinian 1 10/3/2011 18:08 demands, many Page of On March 27, the 40-yearwhich would ultimately result old Park Slope Food Coop
College campuses throughout
in harming the Jewish state. Issue of Concern Affluent Park Slope, where the median annual household income was close to $100,000 according to the 2000 census, is home to a large, heavily liberal Jewish community. But it seems that in Park Slope there is still deep concern for the well-being of the Jewish state. While the Coop usually holds its monthly meetings in a local synagogue with a capacity of about 400 people, the March meeting will be held in the much larger auditorium of the Brooklyn Technical High 1School in Fort Greene. More than 1,000 members are expected
to vote on whether to hold a referendum on the issue. According to some members of the Coop, if they decide to hold a referendum on the issue, the synagogue may suddenly become too large for meetings. The Coop’s manager, Joe Holtz, said voting on the polarizing issue could prompt members to leave the Coop. He has found himself on the carpet ever since the possibility of a referendum became an issue. “People keep telling me a vote in favor of BDS would convince them to leave the coop,” he said. “It’s really strange
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THE JEWISH VOICE AND OPINION, Inc. © 2012; Publisher and Editor-in-Chief: Susan L. Rosenbluth Phone (201)569-2845 Managing Editor: Sharon Beck, Advertising: Rivkie Lichstein-Stall The Jewish Voice & Opinion (ISSN # 1527-3814), POB 8097, Englewood, NJ 07631, is published monthly in coordination with The Central Committee for Israel. A one-year subscription is $18. Periodicals postage is paid at Englewood, NJ and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the Jewish Voice and Opinion, POB 8097, Englewood, NJ 07631. All advertising in the Jewish Voice and Opinion must conform to the standards of the Orthodox Rabbinic kashruth. Editorial content reflects the views of the writer and not necessarily any other group. The Jewish Voice is not responsible for typographical errors.
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Kol Ami: Attack on Iran? Before and during his AIPAC appearance, supporters of Israel and President Barack Obama touted his pledge of support for a prohibition on Iranian pursuit of its nuclear program. When he backtracked a day later, many supporters of Israel were much less sure. The question this month was: Should Israel inform the US if and when the Jewish State is ready to strike Iran, and would you support such an attack? Y
If Israel believes its national interests are independent of those of the US then it should not inform Washington of an impending attack. However, the ramifications of an attack at this time will be too severe for Israel, the US, and the world. Israel could find itself under attack from at least three fronts: Lebanon/Syria, Gaza, and Iran, subjecting Israeli cities to thousands of bombs. continued on page 19 Michael Roth West Orange, NJ
There is no need for Israel to inform anyone before a strike. The Torah doesn’t say: “Protect Jewish life only if the non-Jews approve.” The real question regarding Iran is: Why should Israel fight America’s oil battles while ignoring much more serious problems at home? Historically, the US and Britain have goaded Israel into fighting their battles for oil and then left Israel to suffer the “heat” alone continued on page 19 Raanan Isseroff Brooklyn, NY
Israel should just go ahead, and I would for sure support such an attack. The US should join Israel secretly and help out by providing in-theair refueling and bunkerbusting ammunition. Alan Spielman Woodmere, NY
Israel should make the decision for itself, but should inform the US before attacking Iran. War with Iran will cause major changes to issues such as Shiite-Sunni relations and Saudi politics, and, thus, will directly impact American troops. Washington deserves as much time as possible to prepare for this eventuality. In fact, no one knows what Israel’s continued on page 19 Micha Berger Passaic, NJ
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The Current Crisis: “Even in Laughter, the Heart Can Ache”
It-Loses-in-the-Translation Department: Shortly after the Likud primary last month, Moshe Feiglin and leaders of his Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) faction called on supporters to join him in his monthly ascent to the Temple Mount to thank G-d for their nottoo-bad (25%) showing in the polls and to pray for the future. The invitation instructed participants to prepare halachically—immersion in the mikveh, non-leather shoes—and to meet at the Kotel. When this gathering was announced by the official PAgovernment news agency, WAFA, it was headlined: “Israeli Likud Party Calls to Storm al-Aqsa Mosque.” The first paragraph informed readers that the “storming” was “to build the alleged temple on the ruins of the mosque.” The Al-Aqsa Heritage Foundation said, “These calls to break into the mosque reflect the Israeli occupation’s hidden intentions against the mosque.” The institute called upon “the entire Islamic nation and Arab world to uphold their responsibilities against the Israeli intransigence.” The same day, posters appeared in Jerusalem, in Feiglin’s name, calling for the “cleansing of the Temple Mount of the enemies of Israel.” Although Feiglin and Manhigut Yehudit vehemently denied allegations that they were in any way involved in the posters and called on police to investigate who was behind the incitement, police closed the Temple Mount to all Jews. The Al-Aqsa Foundation also put on its website photos of IDF soldiers touring the Temple Mount. Two of the photos, which simply show a civilian standing, fully clothed, by a wall, are captioned “Jewish Man Urinating on a Wall [within the Temple Mount compound].” There is no evidence that the man was Jewish or that he was relieving himself.
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In an effort to determine the veracity of the claim, Arutz Sheva noted that the photo was apparently taken inside one of the buildings, but the man in question was clearly not part of the soldiers’ group. There was also no telltale stain on the wall. Arutz Sheva argues that such an act would be sacrilegious not only for Muslims, but also for Jews, and that no religious Jew would consider doing such a thing. “Even pretending to do so would be in astonishingly bad taste and poor judgment,” said Arutz Sheva. “It could be a setup to engage Muslims against Jews, something the Al Aqsa Foundation tries to do literally every day.” Might there be a connection? One has to turn to the foundation’s website to find out anything the Israeli government is planning to do. For example, it probably isn’t widely known than Israel is planning to build a new structure on the Temple Mount adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. According to the Al-Aqsa Heritage Foundation, a committee within the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem has submitted plans for a new five-floor (two of them underground), 3700-square-meter structure, to be built near the Mughrabi Gate. “The Israeli archaeology department has been digging and excavating for about five years, searching in vain for a Jewish connection to Jerusalem and demolishing structures that date back to different Arab and Islamic eras,” says the foundation. The foundation says the purpose of the building, which will include “a Jewish museum, lecture halls, a library and archives center, and a center for information,” will be to “serve settlers and foreign tourists who visit the square.” All we can say is “halevei!” S.L.R.
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because it’s not central to the operations of the coop, but, on the other hand, it could have a drastic impact.” “More Hummus Please” The effort to convince the Park Slope Coop to join the BDS movement is led by “Hima B.,” an artist and filmmaker. According to her website, Hima B. is a former stripper whose work focuses on homosexual activism. She claims she wants to force Israel to stop its “apartheid policies” against the Palestinians. Those lobbying against the referendum have dubbed themselves “More Hummus Please,” a reference to the Israeli-manufactured chickpeas-with-tahini product available at the Coop. The leader of “More Hummus Please” is Barbara Mazor, an Orthodox Jew who has been a member of the Coop for 23 years. “I oppose BDS in general, but I particularly oppose it for
the food Coop because those in favor of it are trying to impose a political point of view on an entire population that didn’t come together for the sake of supporting political causes, but, rather, got together only to save on food,” she said. According to Ms. Mazor, just holding a referendum on the issue would legitimize a position that is essentially discriminatory. Boycott by Show of Hands In fact, the Park Slope Food Coop frequently engages in boycotts. It has banned Nestlé products from its shelves because its members disapprove of the company’s promotion of its baby formula over breast-feeding; and concerns about labor practices have moved them to boycott Coca-Cola-affiliated products as well as foods manufactured by Flaum Appetizing. According to Mr. Holtz, an issue which has many members
talking is whether or not to phase out the plastic-roll bags used for produce. However, these issues were settled at meetings by a show of hands, he said. A formal referendum, such as the one proposed for the ban on Israeli products, is very rare. Like Selling Alcohol Gersh Kuntzman, a member of the Coop and a journalist, does not think many people at all are in favor of the boycott. “It could literally be like five people trying to get this on the agenda. We only get a few products from Israel and they’re good corporate citizens,” he said. Mr. Kuntzman said while he does not favor the policies of the current Israeli government, he does not hold Israeli companies responsible for the country’s policies. The only comparable issue he could recall was the argument over whether or not the coop should sell alcohol. “Some Muslim members were offended by alcohol sales,” he said. After much debate, the solution was: “We sell beer. You don’t have to buy it,” he said. Poisoned Relations In the remaining weeks before the 27th, both Hima B. and “More Hummus Please” are trying to win supporters for their respective sides. Jon Haber, who runs the pro-Israel blog “Divest This,” which has opposed BDS boycotts and worked to thwart them since 2004, believes that although the issue will ultimately be settled for the Park Slope Coop, relations may never be the same again. “Once there’s a controversy, you get lots of people coming out of the woodwork. They’re always the same. Hundreds of pro- and anti-Israel activists swarm the area. You see
neighbors who previously were perfectly nice to each other divided into sort of armed camps, waving bloody photos at one another,” he said. Funny? BDS supporters have indeed been handing out flyers to encourage Coop members to “help send a message to Israel that it must honor international law and human rights.” Journalist Yori Yanover saw the humor. “Are they for real?” he asked. “I can just see it now. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s red phone is ringing; it’s three in the morning. Israel’s ambassador to the US is on the line: ‘Sir, we’re losing the food Coop near Prospect Park. If the Coop boycotts us, we’re doomed. Fine, fine, just tell those settlers to pack up the suitcases and get on the trucks. They’ll understand.’” Mr. Yanover summed up the BDS supporters’ attitude as: “Naturally, we’re against oppression everywhere, but we’ll go after the Jews first.” Internet and radio pundit Glenn Beck did not see the humor. He compared the proposed boycott to any other form of antisemitism. “When you use words like ‘I’m just anti-Israel’ or ‘I’m just antiZionist,’ it means you’re just anti-Semitic,” he said. A Cult Surprisingly, controversial American anti-Zionist academician Norman Finkelstein also came out against the BDS movement, calling it a “cult” led by “dishonest gurus.” “I’m getting a little bit exasperated with what I think is a whole lot of nonsense. I’m not going to tolerate silliness, childishness, and a lot of leftist posturing,” he said during an interview on the issue in London.
continued on page 10
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Echoing the words of virtually all Israeli governments, he said the Palestine Solidarity Movement’s campaign for Arab refugees’ and their descendants’ right to return to Israel proper was nothing more than a cover for their desire to see the destruction of Israel. “I loathe the disingenuousness,” he said. “We will never hear the solidarity movement back the two-state solution.” No Impact In fact, he said, despite all the talk, Solidarity as a group and its BDS movement has had almost no impact. Even Palestinian civil groups, he said, have never made good their claims to represent a cross-section of Palestinian society’s views. He called these groups “oneperson organizations,” usually based in Ramallah, unable to organize demonstrations of more than 500 people.
The son of a Holocaust survivor, Mr. Finkelstein was expelled from Israel in 2008 and banned for ten years after he was caught having traveled to Lebanon, where he expressed solidarity with Hezbollah. Truthful? Professor Gerald Steinberg of Bar-Ilan University, who serves as the head of NGO Monitor, a watchdog group that monitors non-governmental organizations, said that by making such statements, Mr. Finkelstein was merely trying to regain some of his “lost premier status.” “This was an attempt to reassert himself. He always goes against the grain,” said Prof Steinberg. “These comments do not rehabilitate him in any way for the past and the anti-Israel propaganda he has voiced. He is not embracing Israel; it’s about the internal boycott campaign dynamic.”
But, heartfelt or not, Mr. Finkelstein’s statements provoked fury from As’ad AbuKhalil, a political science professor at California State University, Stanislaus, and blogger at the “Angry Arab News Service.” “Finkelstein rightly asks whether the real aim of BDS is to bring down the state of Israel. Here, I agree with him that it is. That should be stated as an unambiguous goal. There should not be any equivocation on the subject. Justice and freedom for the Palestinians are incompatible with the existence of the state of Israel,” said Professor AbuKhalil. Few Products If the ban is approved, the actual impact on the Park Slope Food Coop is unclear. Asked to list the foods and products that come from Israel, Mr. Holtz found seltzer and some replacement cartridges for a seltzer machine, organic paprika, Israeli couscous, olive pesto and tapenade, seasonal items, and an occasional fruit or vegetable. Ms. Mazor said, win or lose, just the prospect of a discussion on the issue has already prompted her and those who agree with her to do most of their shopping elsewhere. If there is a referendum, she said, she will consider dropping out of the Coop altogether. Dismay Pro-Israel groups, such as the America-Israel Friendship League, expressed dismay to learn that the Coop was even considering joining the BDS movement. Attorney Kenneth Bialkin, chairman of the AIFL, called the BDS movement not only “misguided and discriminatory,” but also “tinged with antisemitism.” Holding a referendum on the issue, he said, gives legitimacy to a policy that encourages bigotry and intolerance.
Mr. Bialkin pointed out that while BDS supporters demand self-determination for the Palestinians, they resolutely refuse to acknowledge the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their historic homeland, Israel. “BDS supporters, who blame Israel alone for the conflict in the region, are waging a political, economic, cultural, and ideological campaign to delegitimize the State. The BDS movement applies a double-standard, criticizing Israel mercilessly, dishonestly, and unfairly, while ignoring abuses by other nations and the role of the Palestinians in the conflict,” said Mr. Bialkin. Palestinian Jobs Mr. Bialkin said that it is equally egregious that the BDS movement proceeds without concern for the Palestinians whose jobs would be jeopardized by boycotts against Israeli products and companies which have many Arab employees. “The BDS’s rhetoric notwithstanding, boycotting Israeli products does nothing to help the Palestinians improve their lives. No wonder ardent peace activists oppose BDS campaigns as counterproductive,” said Mr. Bialkin. He called the “false analogy” between the democratic Jewish state and apartheid South Africa a “fabricated attempt to isolate and stigmatize Israel.” “Under apartheid, black South Africans were not permitted to vote and they were not citizens. Israeli-Arabs, by contrast, are full citizens of the state. Just like their Jewish counterparts, they vote and are represented in the Israeli Knesset, as well as on the Supreme Court of Israel. They attend schools and universities and enjoy all the rights of
http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com citizenship. Even Arab residents of the Palestinian Authority are permitted to work in Israel, where, according to Israeli law, they must receive the same salaries and benefits given to Jews,” said Mr. Bialkin. Productive Solution But the AIFL is doing much more than supply rhetoric to counteract the BDS movement. Later this spring, possibly soon after Passover, AIFL’s vice president, Paul Kaplan, plans to lead a delegation of senior leaders of the American business and financial-services sector on a six-day mission to Israel. Participants will include CEOs and other officers involved in banking, investment, and finance. Non-sectarian and politically non-partisan, AIFL delegations typically encompass Americans of all creeds and ethnicities. Delegation participants on the planned financial-services mission will have the opportunity to meet and network with their Israeli counterparts, making the excursion a combination educational-business-vacation trip. “Bringing business leaders to experience Israel firsthand for themselves is a way of inoculating participants and those they influence against the BDS movement and its tactics and policies that are destructive not only for Israel, but also for the United States,” said Mr. Kaplan, a litigation partner in the New York office of the Alston & Bird law firm. Nazi Throwback An adamant opponent of the BDS movement, Mr. Kaplan, who has practiced law for more than 25 years with major firms and corporations in the US and Europe and has been an adjunct professor of law at Fordham Law School since 1991, said BDS should be “called out for what it is: a throwback to the early 1930s tactics of the Nazis in Germany and a close alignment with the Nazi propaganda of the 1930s and ’40s.” “There is an historical parallel between the current BDS campaign and the one employed by the Nazi regime before and during World War II. Its purpose was to delegitimize Jews and their businesses as a first step in dehumanizing the Jewish population,” he said The antidote, he said, is to work towards “increasing business connections between Americans and Israelis.” “That is a positive effort that helps the
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The Jewish Voice and Opinion
economy in both countries while working against the potential damage caused by BDS anti-Israel activists,” he said. Jack Kemp Mr. Kaplan is far from a novice at leading this sort of delegation to Israel. In recent years, he led two similar missions along with the late Jack Kemp, the fervently pro-Israel Republican Congressman, Housing Secretary, and vice-presidential candidate. Mr. Kemp was also a member of the AIFL Board. “He was a wonderful leader on behalf of the US-Israel relationship and an all-around great guy,” said Mr. Kaplan. “I have tried to find another Jack Kemp but to no avail.” Mr. Kaplan expects to attract a similarly well-known pro-Israel political leader to lead the mission this spring. First Visit He sees the planned mission to Israel
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as akin to a “businessman’s version of Birthright,” the program that provides first-time trips to Israel for young adults ages 18-26; most of the dozen or so mission participants will visit the Jewish state for the first time. While there may be some subsidies for the mission in Israel, most of the participants will be expected to pay their own way. Business-sector leaders who are interested in participating in the delegation should contact Mr. Kaplan at 212-210-9510 or Dr. Alex Grobman, AIFL executive director, at 212-213-8630 ext 230. “Although I can’t guarantee it, I can say that, almost by definition, the trip will generate business activity between the American participants and the Israelis they will meet,” said Mr. Kaplan. S.L.R.
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March 2012/Adar 5772
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From Passaic, Rabbi Dovid Smith Throws His Kippah into the Ring to Run for Congress in the Ninth District While Israel and her sup-
porters throughout the world wonder whether or not US President Barack Obama intends to support Israel against Iran, Rabbi Dovid Smith, currently running as an independent for Congress in NJ’s newly redrawn District 9, has no doubt the answer is no. “The President’s remarks are a set-up to try to force Israel to surrender the Jewish State’s own nuclear weapons, and the pro-Israel community, which is keeping the crisis with Iran on the front burner, is actually not acting in Israel’s best interests,” said Rabbi Smith, a corporate litigation attorney and Lubavitch pulpit rabbi who resides with his wife and seven children in Passaic. He believes that, as a result of the crisis, the Obama administration will seek “a regional solution to the nuclear issue, and, for Obama, that will mean destroying Israel’s defensive nuclear arsenal.” “By creating this crisis, Israel’s enemies seek to accomplish something that would otherwise be impossible. They understand that chaos is often used as an excuse to bring change for the worse,” he said. Strong Voice According to Rabbi Smith, only strong, independent voices in Congress will act as a deterrent to this sort of aspiration, which leads to his explaining why he is running as an independent candidate (not a candidate from the Independent Party) in the 9th District, a long-time Democrat stronghold. Ask him why he thinks he can defeat one of the two Democratic incumbents currently vying to represent
the new district, to say nothing of the two— possibly three— Republican contenders, and Rabbi Smith, 39, tells the story of a certain discussion around the Sukkah table at his home in Passaic, where he and his family have lived for the past ten years. He was explaining to his seven children why, in light of the German Independent candidate for Congress Rabbi experience, in Dovid Smith of Passaic with his wife, Elisheva, which the Nazis, their seven children, and his wife’s 93-year-old he said, were able grandmother, Dr. Esther Colchamiro to achieve power and accomplish evil because “But if you don’t do it, G-d had been abolished from then it’s all just talk,” said one German society, especially the of his older children. schools, the United States must Rabbi Smith remembers elect leaders who will insist on the moment of silence before freedom. Real freedom, he told his wife, Elisheva, told him, “If his family, means keeping G-d you do run, I’ll support you.” in the forefront and recognizing Jewish Candidates that the fundamentals of morality In short order, papers and freedom are a “matched set.” were filed and petitions were “Runaway debt undermines signed, and Rabbi Smith’s civilization, just as terrorism and name was slated to be on immorality do, and it happens the ballot, not as a candidate when society’s belief in G-d from the Independent Party, is chilled,” he said. but, rather, as an individual, a Just Talk? true “independent.” His children listened He will not have to quietly, and then one of the participate in a primary, and younger ones spoke up: “Tattie, in the general election in why don’t you go to Washington November, any registered and tell them how to do it?” voter can pull the lever for him. Rabbi Smith recalled Republicans or Independents laughing as he tried to explain to who are changing their affiliation the child that, as a busy attorney to “Democrat” or “unaffiliated” with offices in Manhattan and in order to vote in the June New Jersey, and the rabbi at Democratic primary, will still Beis Menachem of Passaicbe able to vote for Rabbi Smith Clifton, he simply did not have (or anyone else, for that matter) the time to run for office. in the general election.
If Rabbi Shmuley Boteach actually decides to run in the GOP primary in June, and wins, and Steve Rothman is successful in the Democratic primary, all three candidates for Congress from the 9th will be Jewish, and two of them— Rabbis Boteach and Smith— identify with the Lubavitch movement. More Conservative Voters Rabbi Smith is convinced that while both Democratic incumbents running in the 9th District support same-sex marriage, the district’s rankand-file voters agree with him and do not. He also thinks most of them would prefer school vouchers so that they can decide for themselves whether to send their children to public, parochial, or secularprivate schools. “If I could, I would rescue every child from the government-run public schools and encourage parents to use vouchers to send their children to schools which will teach them that G-d exists,” he said. It is not that Rabbi Smith denies the value of a secular education. Raised in a Modern Orthodox home in Toronto, Canada, he went to the University of California at Berkeley where he doublemajored in philosophy and molecular biology. At Berkeley, he took all his meals at the Chabad House, and, by the time he graduated, he considered himself an adherent of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He graduated from the Tulane University School of Law and although he has studied at Lubavitch yeshivoth in Israel, he received rabbinic ordination from Tomchei Timimim Lubavitch in Brooklyn, popularly known as 770.
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Arab-American Running for Senate Supports Israel as the Only Party in the Conflict Who Wants Peace Bader Qarmout, who im-
migrated to the US from Amman, Jordan, as a child, says one of the reasons he is running in this year’s Republican primary for US Senate from NJ is that the United States needs a Senator who sees Israel as a “sovereign nation that should not have to ask for the right to defend itself.” “As a Christian from an Arab country, I know Israel’s value to the US as the only stable democracy in a volatile part of the world. As much as I would like to see peace in the Middle East, it is crucial for everyone to recognize that while Israel wants peace, the other side has yet to give any indication that it does, too. If Israel wants peace and the Palestinians want the destruction of the Jewish state, then peace is impossible,” he says.
NJ Republican Candidate for US Senate Bader Qarmout, his wife, Jennifer, and their four children Mr. Qarmout says that his major reason for running is “to give my children the country my parents gave me.” He faces formidable challenges: in the Republican primary for Senate, he will face the state’s GOP establishment candidate, State Senator Joe Kyrillos, and whoever wins that
race will oppose incumbent Democratic US Sen Robert Menendez. Nevertheless, Mr. Qarmout believes he can win and that “the only failure is if I don’t run.” Tea Party Candidate Already winning praise from Tea Party activists, Mr. Qarmout could potentially
face Anna Little, another Tea Party “darling,” but she has not officially joined the race for the Senate. Some Tea Party activists and other NJ conservatives hope that rather than run against Mr. Menendez, the very proIsrael Mrs. Little will consider a rematch against incumbent Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone in NJ’s 6th Congressional District. She lost that race in 2010, 55 percent to 43 percent, but it was Mr. Pallone’s worst showing since 1992 and the first time in his career that he failed to carry his home county of Monmouth. Poor Name Recognition In a new Rutgers-Eagleton poll, 44 percent of registered NJ voters said they supported Mr. Menendez, while only 22 percent said they would vote
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Global March
ethnic cleansing, and Judaization policies affecting the people, land, and sanctity of Jerusalem.” The site further claims that their efforts “will ward off Israel’s threat to world peace through the ‘Judaization’ of the holy city.” Global Effort At the end of February, Palestinian organizations from Britain, Germany, Austria, Italy, and the Netherlands met in London to discuss arrangements for the GMJ. Hafez Karmi, head of the Palestinian Forum in Britain, said he was aware of a “large number of British dignitaries,” in addition to the heads of Arab and Muslim communities, who support the GMJ, and will participate in rallies outside the Israeli embassy in London. According to a report from the American branch of GMJ, ten organizations, mostly from the San Francisco area have endorsed the project. At the same time, at the International Conference for the Defense of Jerusalem, held in Qatar, PA President Mahmoud Abbas officially called on Muslims to go to Jerusalem to confront Israel’s “accelerated efforts to Judaize the city.” Mr. Abbas even claimed Israel intended to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque. Mr. Levick expects the results of these invitations to
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continued from page 1 be “grave.” “The leaders of the GMJ are very much aware of its links to proscribed terrorist groups, and yet its endorsers include a rather predictable list of organizations and US and other nationals, including a UN employee and a former British MK,” he said. Iran’s Fingerprints Although leaders of the GMJ claim it is a purely grassroots movement, there is evidence that the impetus was provided by Iran. Recently, the country’s “Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution” Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, called the GMJ “a symbol representing the protests of the different movements from the free nations of the world against the occupation, oppression, injustice, and Judaization of Jerusalem.” Under Iran’s guidance, the GMJ has a national committee with representation from the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, South Africa, the Arab Maghreb states, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, the US, Iran, and India. This group has formed a board that will meet in Iran. Although reports from Iran refer to the protesters as “peace marchers,” their goals are to “support the right of the Palestinian people to liberate their lands and live on them in freedom and dignity,” and to
“support the non-negotiable and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including their families, to return to their homes and lands from which they were uprooted.” “In other words,” said Dr. Aaron Lerner of the IMRA news agency, “to destroy Israel.” The Plan According to the GMJ’s website, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, the government of Iran, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Western Islamists, the extreme left, and radical non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have “united” with the aim of engineering a public relations disaster for Israel. This, the Arabs believe, will advance their long-term assault on the legitimacy of the Jewish state. According to emails sent by organizers of the GMJ, the leaders believe Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria will allow them to march across the borders “into Palestine, challenging the Israeli army.” The rest of the plan seems to be based on a fantasy in which Israel is falling apart and cannot, or will not, move to stop the invaders. “Imagine a situation where we have more than a million people streaming in from four borders and Israel fails to stop the human tide. Once we have broken this mental barrier, then it’s all over. Next
time we will have 5 million who will be marching in and it will only grow from here. This is exactly the nightmare situation for Israel. Thus we will undermine the Israeli state, like no other strategy and then it will all begin to unravel and the Zionist edifice which is unraveling as we speak, will soon fall. It’s a matter of time now, as we all know,” said an organizer via email. Standing Firm For its part, Israel has made clear that it will not permit any type of attack on its borders that might threaten the country’s right to self-defense and autonomy as an independent state. This is not the first time Israel has faced this threat. Last May, on Israel’s 2011 Independence Day (which the Palestinians call Naqba, or “the catastrophe,” and treat like Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah), Palestinian media sent fervent messages asking Arabs and their supporters to cross the border into Israel. Warned of the potential confrontation with Israel’s armed forces, Lebanese security prevented marchers from approaching Israel’s border. Only the Syrian government, hoping to divert attention from the internal rioting, aided the marchers.
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Freedom of Mobility on Shabbos: Zomet’s Halachic Adaptations of Electric Mobility Devices In many Orthodox-Jewish
communities, it is no longer startling on Shabbat to see disabled individuals going to synagogue by themselves in electric wheelchairs. Now, thanks to a new invention from the team that developed the Shabbat wheelchairs, disabled or elderly Sabbath-observers who depend on chairlifts to go up and down stairs, will be able to move freely in their own homes, even on Shabbat and holidays. The Shabbat-acceptable electric wheelchair and chairlift are the creations of the Jerusalem-based Zomet Institute, a non-profit organization specializing in information technology equipment and electronic appliances designed to meet halachic requirements of the Sabbath and Jewish holidays. The name is
ONE
a Hebrew acronym for Tzevtei Mada ve Torah, literally Teams of Science and Torah. At first glance, Zomet’s work seems to be an oxymoron. Using electricity is prohibited on the Sabbath and yet this Orthodox institution finds ways that satisfy the letter of the law while permitting devices that, for the elderly and infirm, have become necessities. Hareidi Endorsements Zomet was established in Alon Shvut in 1990 by Rabbi Yisrael Rozen, a recognized rabbinic judge who founded and headed the Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s Administration of Conversion to Judaism. Although Zomet’s critics accuse the organization of affiliating with “Modern Orthodox” Judaism, Rabbi Rozen actively seeks out halachic rulings
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and endorsements from recognized hareidi authorities in Jerusalem, such as Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, z”tl, and his student, Rabbi Yehoshua Neuwirth. According to Rabbi Rozen, Zomet devised its Shabbatfriendly electric wheelchair more than 20 years ago at the behest of Rav Auerbach. He still remembers vividly the phone call he received from Rav Auerbach asking him and Zomet for help. Honored to have been given the opportunity to assist the revered posek, who was widely known as one of the leading halachic authorities of his generation, Rabbi Rozen gladly accompanied him to the home of a young disabled hareidi woman who was confined to a wheelchair. Commanded to Rejoice Rav Auerbach asked Rabbi Rozen and Zomet “to make some sort of arrangement for her to be mobile on Shabbos.” The rav explained that the young woman, who used an electric wheelchair, was a student from an observant family. Because of her disability, “Shabbos [was] a very sad day for her instead of being a day of rejoicing.” Rav Auerbach made clear that the young woman needed some sort of Shabbat-acceptable electric wheelchair. Although as a woman she was not required to be part of the minyan, she wished that she could visit friends and get out of the house on the Sabbath. Rav Auerbach explained that enjoying the Sabbath is a commandment and he expected the scientists and technicians at Zomet to devise a solution.
Two Halachic Principles He was aware that Zomet relied on two halachic principles as the basis for using electrical mobility devices on the Sabbath: Indirect operation, known as “gramma,” and modulating an existing electric current. The gramma is based on the concept that work that is prohibited on the Sabbath— whether by Torah commandment or by rabbinic decree—is permitted in principle if the individual does not perform the work but only indirectly causes it to happen. “In the Talmud, the verse, ‘Do not perform any work’ is interpreted as, in principle, allowing gramma, an indirect operation,” said Rabbi Rozen. In Cases of Loss Most rabbinic commentators have held that gramma is permitted only in cases of great need. In 16th century Poland, Rabbi Moses Ben Israel Isserles, known as the Rama, wrote that it was acceptable only in “a situation of loss.” According to Rabbi Rozen, the original source for the gramma, in the Mishna and the Talmud, considered its use in extinguishing a fire, which is work to get rid of something that is not wanted. However, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, writing in Poland in the 19th and early 20th centuries, said in his Mishna Berura that “this refers not only to extinguishing a flame, which is work whose byproduct is not needed, rather it is true for all work.” According to Rabbi Rozen, the fact that a gramma is permitted in “a situation of loss” has been interpreted in recent generations to include not only
http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com situations that cause financial loss, such as a fire, but also other essential needs, especially in matters of health and security. “In fact, this has been extended to include anything related to health, which has been given a status on an equal footing with ‘a situation of loss’ and often of even greater importance,” he said. Adjusting a Shabbos Timer This, he said, is why, in his recent book about the laws of the Sabbath, Shemiras Shabbos K’Hilchasa, Rabbi Neuwirth addressed the subject of adjusting tabs on a Sabbath timer in order to delay or hasten the time necessary for the electricity to engage or disengage. According to Rabbi Neuwirth, if the timer was set before the Sabbath to stop the electric current at a specific time, it is permitted, on the Sabbath, to do what is necessary so that the current will be stopped at a later time, but it is usually forbidden to do anything to make the current turn off any earlier. However, he wrote, “for the needs of a sick person, even if he is not in mortal danger, or for a matter related to a mitzvah, it is permitted to make an adjustment so that the timer will turn off the electricity earlier, as long as one is careful not to turn it off manually.” “This permission to operate through gramma by having a timer operate earlier, for a sick person or for a mitzvah, is the basis for Zomet’s approval from many rabbis to permit a disabled or elderly person, who always uses a wheelchair, to operate our equipment on Shabbat,” said Rabbi Rozen. Modulating The second halachic principle— modulating, or changing, an electric current that was not shut off before the Sabbath began—provided another way to approach the challenge. “Not everyone is aware of this halacha, but if, for example, a two-way radio is used on Shabbos, it is permitted to change the intensity of the sound. Modifying a current—or a voltage or a wavelength— does not violate any prohibition,” said Rabbi Rozen, adding that none of this applies to a light or a heating element, which are considered to be flames, and, according to halacha, it is specifically forbidden to increase or decrease the level of a flame on the Sabbath. Modulating the level of sound or the
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The Jewish Voice and Opinion
speed of a motor carries no such prohibition, he said. But just operating the electrical device is problematic on the Sabbath, not because it involves lighting or extinguishing a flame, but, rather, because turning it on constitutes constructing, finishing, or creating something new. “In all these types of work, the prohibition is to make something new, like closing an electric circuit, but not in modifying something that already exists,” said Rabbi Rozen. Health and Security Citing Rav Moshe Feinstein, z”tl, and others, he explained that a Sabbath observer with a hearing aid would
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be permitted to adjust the intensity of sound on the Sabbath as long as the device was turned on before sundown and remained on for the entire 25 hours. “This is also the basis for the accepted ruling that closed-circuit television, which is used for security, may be operated on Shabbat from the point of view of the electricity involved, as long as it operates continuously and the picture is not recorded, since electronics involves nothing more than changes in current, voltage, and frequencies,” he said. He said that when Rav Auerbach asked him to find a solution for the wheelchairbound young woman, the rav was aware
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Halachic Adaptations of these halachic principles that could make it possible. When Rabbi Rozen asked for Rav Auerbach’s halachic approval and his blessings, he received both immediately. Rav Auerbach explained, citing the Prophet Isaiah, that “oneg Shabbos” is a mitzvah and the “gramma solutions” developed in the Zomet Institute “are suitable for disabled people, who are defined halachically as sick and suffering.” Techno-Halachic Solution Armed with the rav’s halachic endorsement and blessings, Rabbi Rozen and the Zomet scientists set out to design a techno-halachic solution for the disabled who rely on electric wheelchairs. He established a task force consisting of rabbis and engineers who could identify the practical engineering and halachic problems and find solutions to them, one by one.
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continued from page 17
To gain a deeper understanding of the various equipment and mobility aids that were currently available, the team visited and observed the repair laboratories of the Israeli Ministries of Health and Defense, which jointly care for disabled IDF veterans. They also went to Yad Sarah, whose mission is to keep the ill and elderly in their own homes and out of institutions for as long as possible. The largest voluntary organization in Israel, Yad Sarah provides a wide spectrum of free or nominal-cost services, from renting medical and rehabilitative equipment to transporting patients, all designed to make life easier for sick, disabled, and elderly individuals and their families. Direction, Braking, & Speed The team soon realized that to make the Shabbatfriendly electric wheelchair,
they had to devise halachic solutions for operating the main switch, for setting the direction of the chair’s movement (forward and backwards), for determining the speed, and for braking. Both halachic principles— gramma and modulation—were necessary. When an electric wheelchair equipped with Zomet’s Shabbos mode is turned on, the motor runs continuously, although at a slow “crawling” pace. Any small friction, like the weight of a person, will stop the chair from moving. The rider can change the level of the current going to the motor by adjusting a rotary switch. By increasing or decreasing the current, the patient can make the chair move. Prototype After a few months, Zomet had a prototype. Their first client was an elderly man from
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Kibbutz Yavneh who had turned to Zomet and was delighted to discover that the team had a model with which he could experiment. Today, in Israel and abroad, hundreds of Shomer Shabbos Jews with mobility challenges have regained their independence on Shabbat using Zomet’s techno-halachic aids. “Many of them at first were inhibited by the appearance that they were desecrating Shabbos, and they were not comfortable using devices, such as the electric wheelchair. But quite often their community rabbis encouraged them, especially after receiving explanations and the background of the issues from Zomet,” said Rabbi Rozen. Every Shabbat-Mode electric wheelchair carries a sign that announces “this chair is equipped with a halachically permitted Shabbos mechanism,
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http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com approved by The Zomet Institute and prominent rabbis.” “Zomet’s devices can be used ‘lechatchila,’ as a desired solution, and not only as a ‘bedieved,’ or a last resort,” said Rabbi Rozen. To Push or Not Rabbi Rozen recalled an occasion when Rabbi Neuwirth was approached in London by a Jewish father, whose 15-year-old daughter needed a wheelchair. The father explained to Rabbi Neuwirth that he was in good physical shape himself and would have no problem pushing his daughter in a conventional wheelchair. His question was whether on Shabbat he should use the Zomet-devised electric wheelchair or the traditional one which he would have to push within the eruv. Rabbi Neuwirth suggested Zomet’s version for two reasons. “The Zomet system is definitely permitted, and there is no reason to strain yourself, but even if you want to make the effort, your daughter will feel more comfortable if she can maintain her independence. That is also a consideration that must be taken into account by halacha,” he said. Chairlift Can Save Lives It is a ruling that impressed Gaby Gozland, the Riverdalebased US agent for Zomet’s new Shabbos Stairlift. One of his newest clients bought
March 2012/Adar 5772
the item for her mother even though she already had a conventional chairlift. The reason: Right before the previous Shabbat, her mother had gone upstairs, using the chairlift, and planned to come down before sunset to eat and sleep, like she usually did on the Sabbath. But this time, she fell asleep, and when she awoke, it was already Shabbat. The older woman, who has balance issues, did not want to chance falling down the stairs. Not wishing to desecrate the Sabbath, she remained upstairs with no food for 25 hours. “Her daughter bought her a Zomet Stairlift, and now that problem will not recur,” said Mr. Gozland, who gives free consultations and suggestions to make a senior’s home safe and Shabbat-accessible. He can also be consulted on how to make homes visited by seniors safe and Shabbat-friendly. He can be reached at 646-543-8811. “The Shabbos StairLift gives people the peace of mind to know they or their loved one can stay in their own home. Or with their children and grandchildren, in comfort and safety. It enables individuals with limited mobility to reclaim their dignity, and it helps families come together for meaningful occasions,” he said. S.L.R.
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Many Jews may die; the fast-growing Israeli economy would come to a halt; gas prices could hit $7 a gallon in the US; terrorists could be unleashed against US and Israeli targets worldwide; and Arab leaders as well as “the Arab street” will be united against Israel and the US. All this for a strike that many believe will set Iran’s program back only a few months. There is a possibility that current sanctions could cripple Iran’s banking system and, thus, be effective. Not only do I not support such an attack, I do not believe the US should join it. Michael Roth West Orange, NJ afterwards. It would be foolish for Israel to depend on the US, especially after America’s history of broken promises in return for Israeli retreats and concessions. Just recall US promises to supply Israel with oil after she relinquished
Sinai and access to the Suez Canal. Further, why is the more immediate problem of Arab terrorist armies shooting missiles at Israel from Gaza, Shomron, Sinai, and Lebanon a complete non-issue? “Land for peace,” which makes Israel even more vulnerable by relinquishing eastern Jerusalem, Yesha, and the Golan to enemies, is a far worse problem than “Iran.” Raanan Isseroff Brooklyn, NY or America’s plans really are, and neither country would be foolish enough to relinquish the element of surprise. We have no reason to believe the two countries are preparing different strategies; we just know there is a gap in their leaders’ rhetoric, talk that cannot be fully forthright for obvious security reasons. Micha Berger Passaic, NJ
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Commemoration and Essay Contest on the Armenian Genocide: It Inspired Hitler as well as the Jewish Resistance during the Shoah On Sunday, April 22, in Times Square,
43 Street and Broadway, in Manhattan, from 2-4pm, the Armenian community will hold its 97th Anniversary Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide. The Jewish community has been issued a special invitation to participate, and Jewish high school and college students have been asked to enter an essay contest, answering the question, in 800 words or less: “How Can International Recognition of the Armenian rd
Genocide Help Prevent Future Crimes against Humanity?” In addition to conducting academic research for these essays, Jewish students are invited to attend a program on Sunday March 25 at the Armenian Home in Flushing, NY, where they will have the opportunity to interview Armenian survivors of the massacre as well as experts on the subject. The survivors at the Armenian Home range in age from 97-101. Kosher refreshments will be served.
Call to Remember “Jews must remember the Armenian Genocide, just as Armenians must remember the Jewish Holocaust. It is the struggle of memory against forgetting, truth against power, and an accord that comes from a common destiny,” said Dr. Dennis R. Papazian, National Grand Commander of Knights of Vartan, a co-sponsor of the essay contest. The Knights of Vartan and its affiliated Daughters of Vartan are Armenian-American service organizations dedicated to the intellectual development of the Armenian people and their cultural heritage, including the Armenian language. The contest is also sponsored by Facing History and Ourselves, an international educational group dedicated to combating “racism, antisemitism, and prejudice.” Well-Planned Massacre The date of the anniversary commemoration in Times Square is no accident. Most historians agree the carnage against the Armenians began on April 24, 1915, when Muslim-Ottoman authorities, in a carefully planned effort, arrested some 250 Christian-Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. Over the next three years, the Ottoman military uprooted the Armenian-civilian population—men, women, and children—from their homes in Armenia and Anatolia and expropriated all their property. Those who were not murdered immediately were marched hundreds of miles, with inadequate food or water, to the desert of what is now Syria, where hundreds of thousands died of thirst, hunger, disease, and exhaustion. After a brief period of calm following the end of World War I, the violence against the Armenians began again and continued from 1920 until 1923. 1.5 Million Killed It is estimated that of the 2 million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire on the eve of World War I, more than 1.5 million were murdered. This has been widely recognized as the first of the modern genocides. These Turkish efforts against the Armenians were not new. In the 1890s, anti-Armenian pogroms initiated by Turkey
http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com set the stage for the full-scale genocide, which began when the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), popularly known as the Young Turks, took power in the Ottoman Empire. The Young Turks relied on the Ministries of War and the Interior to carry out the atrocities in Turkey, but its newly created secret unit, the Special Organization, manned by convicts and irregular troops, had mainly been organized to slaughter deported Armenians in large numbers. At first, tens of thousands of Armenians living along the periphery of the Ottoman Empire managed to escape eastward to the Russian border. But in 1918, the Young Turk regime took the war into the Caucasus, where approximately 1.8 million Armenians lived under the Russians. Ottoman forces advancing through Eastern Armenia and Azerbaijan engaged in systematic massacres. Between 1920 and 1923, the successors to the Young Turks, the Nationalist Turks, continued the policy of expulsions and massacres, affecting tens of thousands of new victims. Ethnically Cleansed By 1923, the entire land mass of Asia Minor and historic western Armenia had been expunged of its Armenian population. The majority of Armeniandiaspora communities throughout the world were founded as a result of the forced expulsion. Although 20 countries throughout the world as well as most scholars and historians have officially recognized the Armenian disaster as a “genocide,” the Republic of Turkey refuses to accept the word. Over the years, Turkey has offered several official arguments, all of them rejecting any Turkish responsibility for the genocide. While many Turkish officials maintain that there was no mass murder of Armenians at all, others admit that a few “individuals” may have committed atrocities, “but only as part of a civil war.” Usually those who agree that Armenians were murdered, quickly maintain that the violence was provoked by the Armenians themselves “in order to receive aid and sympathy.” Many historians classify the events of 1915-1918 and 1920-1923 as well as the earlier pogroms in the 1890s, as a religiously-motivated “genocide,” conducted by armed Muslims against a defenseless Christian minority.
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“The Armenian Genocide was centrally planned and administered by the Turkish government against the entire Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire,” said Linda Millman Guller, spokeswoman for the Armenian Genocide Commemoration. Slow Recognition Before 2003, close political ties between Israel and Turkey prompted the Jewish state to ignore, discount, or simply avoid discussions of the Armenian genocide. Those good relations came to an abrupt halt when the Islamist Justice and Development (AK) Party won a majority in the Turkish parliament, and its chairman, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, became prime
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minister. After Mr. Erdoğan not only championed the cause of Hamas terrorists in Gaza but also protesters and terrorists on a Turkishled flotilla designed to break the Israeli blockade against Hamas, the Knesset, for the first time, held official hearings on the Armenian Genocide. While no decision was made on whether to recognize the historical episode as genocide, many officials in Israel believe it will not be long in coming. In 2010, disregarding objections from the Obama administration and the strenuous efforts of the Turkish
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Armenian Genocide ambassador to Washington and a Turkish parliamentary delegation, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a non-binding resolution which described the murder of the Armenians as “genocide.” The resolution calls on President Barack Obama to ensure that US foreign policy reflects an understanding of the “genocide” against the Armenian people and to label the World War I killings as such in his annual statement on the issue. Jewish Resistance’s Inspiration Dr. Papazian, a professor of history and the founding director of the Armenian Research Center at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, said it is particularly important for Jews to recognize the Armenian Genocide. During the Jewish Holocaust, he said, Jewish resistance fighters were devoted
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to a book, written in 1933 by Jewish author Franz Werfel, entitled “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh,” which recorded the history of the Armenian resistance a generation earlier. Dr. Papazian believes Mr. Werfel wrote about the Armenian Genocide because “he had a premonition that what happened to the Armenian minority in the Ottoman Empire might soon befall the Jews of Europe.” “Tragically, his premonition was correct. Since the Young Turk leadership could get away with mass murder of Armenians, why could not prejudicial Europeans get away with mass murder of Jews?” said Dr. Papazian. Adolf Hitler was certain of it. When he first proposed the “final solution” against the Jews, his advisors warned that the world would not permit such
mass murder. Hitler silenced his advisors by telling his Death’s Head troops as he sent them into Poland: “Go, kill without mercy. Who nowadays remembers the annihilation of the Armenians?” Coined in 1933 In fact, the term “genocide” was coined by Jewish attorney and linguist Raphael Lemkin. In 1933, while still living in Poland, he presented an essay to the Legal Council of the League of Nations on “The Crime of Barbarity,” which he characterized as an offense against international law. It was based on the Armenian Genocide and prompted by the murder of some 3,000 Christian Assyrians by Muslims in Iraq during the 1933 Simele massacre. Dr. Papazian pointed out the many parallels between the Jews and Armenians. Both, he said, are “historic people with a high culture and a penchant for success, doomed to live amongst people of a different nationality and a different religion with a false sense of superiority perhaps buttressed by jealousy. Both shared the same fate.” “To allow the Armenian Genocide to be forgotten means the Holocaust may also be forgotten. We must not allow that to happen,” he said.
He suggested that students participating in the essay contest might want to consider several questions: Did the fact that the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide escaped punishment lead other murderous regimes to believe they, too, could kill with impunity? What were the similarities and differences between the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust? Why do so many people consider the Armenian Genocide of World War I the precursor to the Jewish Genocide of World War II? Winners The author of the essay judged to be the best will win $300. The second-place and third-place winners will receive $200 and $100, respectively. Essays are due by March 30. Winners will be informed on Monday, April 9, and will be honored at the Armenian Genocide Commemoration at Times Square. For more information or to register for survivor interviews, contact Ms. Guller at mgmarcom@optonline.net or by calling 203-454-9800, or Lucine Kinoian at april24nyc@ gmail.com. The Armenian Genocide Commemoration in Times Square was founded in 1985 by former NJ resident Sam Azadian, who lost four siblings during the massacres. S.L.R.
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A Syrian Scorecard for Hillary Clinton By Yedidya Atlas At the beginning of March, amid calls for international military intervention in Syria to save civilian lives, a Syrian citizen named Abd el-Hadr wrote on the Facebook wall of IDF spokesman Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai: “We want to get rid of Assad and his regime and transform Syria into a moderate state with freedom of speech, religion, and thought. We are not interested in war with you and are not really interested in the Golan.” Brig-Gen Mordechai, a former intelligence officer, answered him in Arabic: “We all wish for peace in the region and hope that our aspirations for security, peace, and coexistence will be realized.” “In the US, calls for military intervention in Syria have come from John McCain, the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Forces Committee. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also condemned the “criminal massacres against innocent civilians in Syria.” Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman went even further, saying that, if asked, Israel would send humanitarian aid to President Bashar alAssad’s victims. But Mr. Lieberman also recognized a major problem. “The question arises that if the entire world cannot end the terrible massacre, the bloodshed in Syria, what is the value of all the promises of the world community to Israel that they will guarantee our security?” he asked. Syrian People? US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others who have expressed concern about the ongoing internecine violence in Syria constantly issue pronouncements about the “Syrian people” as if it were a homogeneous
national grouping. She recently told reporters in Bulgaria, “The international community has a duty to halt continuing bloodshed and promote a political transition that would see Mr. Assad step down.” Does she honestly believe Mr. Assad will simply agree to resign? Before a coherent and attainable goal-oriented Syrian policy can be developed, it is first necessary to understand the various groupings and allegiances at play. A Hostile Composite The “Syrian people” is a composite of religious and ethnic groups who historically oppose each other. The dominant group, comprising approximately two-thirds of the population, are Sunni Muslims; 12 percent are Alawites; 9 percent are Kurds; 10 percent are various Christian sects (Arab Christians, Assyrians, and Armenians); and the remainder are a hodgepodge of religious-ethnic groups including the Druze, Turkmens, and Circassians. The groups that should be most focused upon are the Sunni, the Alawites, and the Kurds. Subjugation The Sunni majority, including the Muslim Brotherhood, is subjugated by the ruling Alawites, led by the al-Assad family. The Sunni majority, which lost power to the Alawitedominated secular-nationalist Syrian Ba’ath Party in a 1963 coup, did not go down graciously and began to foment increasingly violent unrest led by the Muslim Brotherhood. This later developed into open revolt. In 1980, after an assassination attempt against thenPresident Hafez al-Assad failed,
he brought severe reprisals down upon the Muslim Brotherhood-led Sunnis. In 1982, the city of Hama, a Muslim Brotherhood stronghold, was destroyed by regular Syrian army forces, including tanks and artillery, commanded by Rifat al-Assad, Hafez’s younger brother. An estimated 20,000 residents of Hama were killed. The revolt was quelled and the Alawite al-Assad family continued to rule. However, the real dispute goes back even further. Sunni Muslims view their Alawite brethren as heretics. The Alawites refer to themselves as Alawi because of their adherence to Ali, the Muslim prophet Mohammad’s cousin and son-in-law. Sunnis originally referred to the Alawites as “Nusayri” after the 9th-century Shi’ite Ibn Nusayr, indicating the view that they had broken with Islam.
After 1920, when the French took over Syria (which included Lebanon), the persecuted Alawites ingratiated themselves with the new rulers. The French then encouraged Alawites to join the French-commanded Syrian army and dominate the officer corps as a counterweight to the hostile Sunni majority. This set the stage for the Alawite dominance of the Baath Party and the 1963 takeover of the Syrian government. Kurds While the Kurds are only 9 percent of the total Syrian population, they represent the majority in the Jazira province, and are affiliated with major Kurdish populations in neighboring Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. Historically, the Kurds once ruled their own land known as Kurdistan, which included eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, northwestern Iran, and northern Syria. In all of these
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Biblical Beauty: Ancient Secrets and Modern Solutions Shows the Bible Is a Beauty Guide Unlike Any Other In her newly released book, Biblical
Beauty: Ancient Secrets and Modern Solutions (Anbern Press), author, beauty expert, and lifestyle coach Rachelle Weisberger has created a happy mix of anthropological study, Biblical divrei Torah, and a personal how-to guide to looking and feeling pretty. According to Ms. Weisberger, a licensed cosmetologist, makeup artist, and skin-care specialist who literally sparkles although she is now in her 60s, the Hebrew Bible is the original source for women on how to look good and feel
better. She is convinced that the Torah contains hidden beauty secrets that are as useful today as they were for the ancient heroines of Jewish history and that, armed with these secrets from the past, today’s woman can enjoy a “modern celebration of beauty” in her own life. But while Biblical Beauty uses the Torah text as well as archaeological discoveries, commentaries, and historical research to make a case for Judaism’s endorsement of beauty products and techniques, Ms. Weisberger believes the real significance of her book is to help expand modern
ideas about the true nature of beauty. “I wrote this book to present a practical guide and resource so that women can feel pride in their physical appearance and find satisfaction in their lives, at every age,” she says. Torah as “Alternative” Given her background, it is not surprising that when she looked for sources of inspiration for her book, she turned to the Torah. Her parents were instrumental in starting the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, which her father served as its first cantor, and she is a longtime member of the Englewood-Orthodox community. A lifelong supporter of Israel, she is a life member of AMIT, EMUNAH, and Hadassah. She sees Biblical Beauty as a “refreshing alternative” to the modern-day worship of youth and physical perfection. By integrating Biblical, historical, and cultural perspectives, examined through the lens of modern sensibility and supplemented with practical advice and user-friendly tips on a variety of topics, Ms. Weisberger offers fresh insights on skin care, makeup, hair, fragrance, jewelry, healthy aging, protection from too much sun, motherhood, and feminine leadership. “Timeless beauty is not confined to physical features or chronological age. Beauty is multifaceted and all-encompassing. It’s less about what you put on your face and more about the inner qualities that define you as a woman,” she says. Underlying Relationships Her goal is to redefine what beauty is by exploring the underlying relationships between the Bible’s iconic women and their physical attributes and inner qualities, interwoven with their individual spirituality. Fortunately, in the Bible, she has a plethora of role models from which to choose. The personalities and lives of the matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah, and other notable Biblical women like Miriam, Rahab, Devorah, Bathsheba, Esther, and Judith of the Apocrypha, serve as springboards to timely topics that affect all women. Using all the sources at her disposal, Ms. Weisberger suggests what make-up products these women may have used on their faces, how they fixed their hair, perfumed themselves, protected their skin, and dressed for success.
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Rachelle Weisberger Esther and Perfume For example, she uses the Book of Esther, in which the new Queen of Persia bathed and used scents before risking her life to approach the king with the ultimate aim of saving the lives of the Jewish people, as the introduction to a history of perfume and fragrance and the uses of both. While the Talmud discusses women who put spices and oils in their shoes “so the scent would drift upward and arouse passion in passersby,” Ms. Weisberger offers suggestions on how modern women should use perfume as a beauty aid and aromatherapy as way to lift mind, mood, cognitive function, and health. Bathsheba is Ms. Weisberger’s model for skin care, and Devorah, who sat in the shade under a tree while judging the people of Israel, obviously knew something about avoiding too much sun. Rebecca, who was won for Isaac with gold and silver jewelry, allows Ms. Weisberger to discuss how ornaments should be worn and cared for; and Judith, who groomed herself to perfection before seducing and executing the Roman General Holofernes, is Ms. Weisberger’s jumping off point for a discussion on proper hair-care. Inner Qualities But Biblical Beauty explores not only the efforts these women expended to make themselves look pleasing, it also delves into the inner qualities that make them inspiring role models for a meaningful and satisfying life. “These women are proof that beauty is a reflection of our innermost qualities and a gift of a healthy way of life. They showed that a nutritious diet, daily physical activity, loving relationships, meaningful
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The Jewish Voice and Opinion
lives, and a connection with the Divine can be seamlessly blended to nourish the body and soul,” she says. How these ancient women accomplished that feat is Ms. Weisberger’s key to helping modern women. She looks for and finds a synthesis of ancient practices and modern solutions. Never too Late She is convinced it is never too late to start a beauty routine based on healthy habits and mindful choices. She is well aware that some women’s problems are more serious than others. After working for more than two decades in the beauty industry, and creating her own line of holistic cosmetics, Ms. Weisberger
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expanded her expertise to the medical field. She served as staff cosmetologist for a major plastic surgery and dermatology center in Northern NJ, where she specialized in camouflage makeup for problem skin, post-cosmetic surgery, and cancer patients. As the beauty director of a chain of women’s fitness centers, Ms. Weisberger introduced an integrated beauty, health, and fitness program. She believes that women must take charge of their own physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. “I really hope Biblical Beauty will inspire readers with practical solutions for enhancing their natural attributes, gaining self-confidence, and finding balance in their lives,” she says. S.L.R.
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March 2012/Adar 5772
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The Big Apple Circus Features a Jewish “Grandma” In early March at the Big
Apple Circus, two little boys from Teaneck and their grandma, laughed out loud when a grey-haired lady-clown with sensible old-lady shoes and the kind of carpetbag just made for carrying sweaters and nosh, suddenly took a drink of water and began spitting in the air like a fountain. In fact, spitting aside, Grandma the Clown, now performing with the Big Apple Circus in Bridgewater, NJ, is no lady. “She” is International Clown Hall of Fame inductee Barry Lubin, a nice Jewish boy from Atlantic City. For the past 25 years, Mr. Lubin’s “Grandma” has been the iconic face of the Big Apple Circus. Now almost 60, he says he modeled his character on the “little old ladies,” including his own grandmothers, who strolled on the boardwalk. Clown College Growing up, he harbored hopes of becoming a television director, but his goals changed when he and a friend were accepted by the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Clown College in Venice Park, Florida. It was, he says, “a new, offbeat learning institution, especially for a Jewish boy from NJ.” After eight weeks of training, he graduated and was hired by Ringling Brothers. “Grandma”
made her debut on January 1, 1975 in The Greatest Show on Earth’s three-ring circus. One-Ring Circus In 1977, when he was invited to participate in the Fourth International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo, he experienced the more intimate, traditional one-ring format. “It was a very different setting for an American clown used to working anonymously in giant arenas,” he says. But he liked it so much that when the comparatively new but already very popular Big Apple Circus invited him to join in 1982, he accepted. Jewish Brainchild The Big Apple Circus was the brainchild of Paul Binder, a Jewish Brooklynite who studied improv comedy at Dartmouth, business at Columbia, and mime and juggling on the streets of San Francisco and Europe. He returned to New York in 1977 and founded the Big Apple Circus as a non-profit dedicated to
providing classic circus But those who entertainment in a catch his “Grandma” comparatively small, at the Big Apple audience-friendly Circus this year venue. The Big Apple will be seeing Mr. Circus also delivers Lubin’s farewell programs to the performances with elderly in residentialthe troupe. After this care facilities, to season, he intends hospitalized patients to concentrate on of all ages, and to European venues, underprivileged coming back to the children. US “just to keep in The Big Apple’s touch.” “Circus after School” is “Dream Big!” an all-encompassing, This season’s Barry “Grandma” 12-week extraBig Apple Circus Lubin based his curricular program iconic character on show, entitled that allows children the old Jewish ladies “Dream Big!” and to present their own who used to walk starring (of course) student showcase. on the boardwalk “Grandma,” includes Scholarships are jugglers, balancing available. acts, acrobats, Until he retired in 2008, trapeze flyers, magical clowns, Mr. Binder served his circus as and animal acts featuring horses, ringmaster and artistic director. dogs, a capybara, and even a He is now its artistic advisor. porcupine. In 2001, Mr. Lubin became The shows at the TD Bank the Big Apple Circus’s Production Ballpark in Bridgewater are Consultant and Director of held in an old-fashioned but Clowning. heated tent, and can be seen Final Season on Sundays, March 11 and 18, at When not 12:30 and 4:30pm; Wednesday on tour with the and Thursday, March 14 and circus, Mr. Lubin 15, at 11am and 6:30pm; and performed in Friday, March 16, at 11am. Ample other shows parking is available. in the US and After appearing in New Europe. He did Jersey, the troupe will move a few movies, onto Boston (March 27-May including 13), and complete its season in Light Sabers &the Big Top at the Big Apple Circus “Big Top PeeQueens from May 22-June 17. Wee,” and was a Tickets can be purchased at creative consultant for NBC’s bigapplecircus.org or by calling long-running sitcom, Cheers. 888-541-3750 or 800-922-3772. In addition to his 2002 Mr. Lubin said that while induction into the International he is looking forward to a new Clown Hall of Fame, he also chapter in his life, his proudest won, in 2007, the first Lou accomplishment thus far has Jacobs Lifetime Achievement been a successful headstand Award by ClownAlley.net. This on a whoopee-cushion on past January, his name was the stage of Carnegie Hall enshrined into the Circus Ring in Manhattan. As Grandma of Fame in Sarasota, Florida, always says: the way to get which honors great American to Carnegie Hall is “practice, circus stars. practice, practice.” S.L.R.
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Oslo Accords and Their Antidote, the One Israel Fund, Turn 18 The year 2011-2012 marks
the 18 anniversary of the Oslo Accords, which were signed in September 1993, and, a few weeks later, the One Israel Fund, which its executive vice-president, Scott Feltman, describes as “the antidote to Oslo” was founded. Launched by Yechiel Leiter, whom many remember as the first leader of the Hebron Fund, the One Israel Fund was created, according to Mr. Feltman, “to respond to the new realities on the ground” created by the Oslo process. One Israel’s purpose was to show emotional and financial support to the Jewish residents of Yesha, the acronym for Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. After Gaza was relinquished by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2005, Yesha was used to refer to Judea and Samaria alone. th
Calling Mr. Leiter “a forward-thinking visionary,” Mr. Feltman said One Israel took as its principal goals defending the rights of the Jewish people to their traditional home and heartland, and assisting proactively in building, developing, and reinforcing the very lands the Oslo Accords had placed in jeopardy. “During the past 18 years, One Israel Fund has grown from a nascent idea into a full-fledged humanitarian aid movement that has enabled countless communities in Judea and Samaria to flourish despite the most hostile conditions. Without much fanfare, fellow Jews from across America, from great philanthropists to idealistic activists, have stepped forward to show solidarity with these communities, known as the Biblical heartland of
Israel, by providing them with the resources they need to protect and develop their cities, towns, and villages,” said Mr. Feltman. Chai Anniversary Banquet On Wednesday, March 14, One Israel Fund will celebrate its Chai Anniversary Banquet at Bridgewaters in the South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan. It will honor the devotion of several activists who, according to Mr. Feltman, have supported One Israel Fund’s numerous humanitarian activities. “Together with people from across the tri-state area who care deeply about Israel and her survival and protection, One Israel will celebrate the remarkable accomplishments of 18 years and renew its commitment to Israel’s wellbeing for the next 18 years and beyond,” said Mr. Feltman.
Concessions and Terror Asked to recall the events that prompted the establishment of One Israel, Mr. Feltman said it is difficult to believe “that it has been a full 18 years since the infamous Oslo Accords were signed.” “The continued failed proposition of land-for-peace has plummeted Israel into a constant cycle of lopsided concessions, daily terror, and predictable condemnations from countries everywhere. Oslo marked the beginning of a new level of hostilities towards and expectations from Israel and its citizens. And it has been the direct cause of two named wars against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, and one continuous battle against terrorism,” he said.
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Supporters of One Israel agree that few in Israel were more adversely affected by the Oslo process than were the residents of Judea and Samaria, and the residents of Gaza before their expulsion in 2005. “The very existence of their homes and communities was jeopardized while their cities were subjected to wave after wave of terror attacks,” said Mr. Feltman. Dedications When the Oslo Accords were signed and One Israel Fund was started, even many American Jews in the pro-Israel community knew comparatively little about Jewish life in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. Nevertheless, over the past 18 years, One Israel has found donors from nearly every major and minor American-Jewish community. “People who had never even visited Yesha would enthusiastically dedicate new playgrounds, like the one recently built in Otniel, or a beautiful Sefer Torah, like the one presented to the town of Havot Yair, or a bomb shelter for a new kindergarten in Mevo’ot Yericho, or a new yeshiva under construction in Itamar in memory of the viciously murdered Fogel family,” said Mr. Feltman. In March 2011, terrorists broke into the Fogel home in
Itamar, murdering the father, Udi, 36; the mother, Ruth, 35; and their children, Yoav, 11; Elad, 4; and three-month-old infant Hadas. Mr. Feltman said One Israel specifically seeks to protect civilians and their communities in Yesha because “we know the communities in Yesha are the favorite target of savage terrorists intent on spilling Jewish blood.” Surveillance Cameras The group has had some impressive successes. For example, through the new TacSight Initiative, several communities now enjoy an extra layer of security provided by newly acquired portable thermal cameras. “These cameras have proven to be a powerful deterrent against terror attacks at night when conventional equipment is less reliable,” said Mr. Feltman. The cameras have, thus far, been placed in Einot Kedem, Maon-Sussia, Itamar, Elazar, and Shilo East. Five more communities are scheduled to receive thermal cameras in the near future. “This is in addition to the larger surveillance cameras which have been placed in communities including Mevo’ot Yericho, Mitzpe Yericho, Itamar, and Givat Harel,” said Mr. Feltman.
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Equipping Security Other One Israel Fund initiatives include spearheading a massive training campaign to better equip Yesha’s civilian security personnel and security chiefs to prevent and respond to emergencies. “This proactive effort will allow local response teams to protect residents from a wide range of dangers and attacks. It is programs like these that make One Israel Fund the foremost aid organization that assists communities throughout Yesha with its myriad needs. This has been its mission since its inception and continues to guide it today,” said Mr. Feltman. He noted that for those who worry about and pray for Israel and her citizens, not much has changed since the Oslo Accords were signed. “The existential threat to our homeland has only intensified over the past 18 years, and we all know there has not been a moment of true peace throughout Israel’s existence,” he said. Honorees For the March 14th dinner, the lineup of honorees is headed by the pro-Israel syndicated radio host John Batchelor, whom Mr. Feltman called “one of the greatest friends of Israel in the media today.” Other honorees include Howard and Fayge Feder of Woodmere, NY, who will receive the Keter Shem Tov Award; Dr. Arthur and Linda Kook of Englewood, NJ, who will receive the Bonei Yisrael Award; and Jerry and Essie Meyer of Jerry Meyer Photography Studios, who will receive the Hakarat Hatov Award. The organization’s Young Leadership Award will be presented to Yeshaya Averbach,
originally from Miami Beach, Florida, and Ariela Robinson, originally from Skokie, Illinois. Both now live in the New York area and have led efforts to create a One Israel Young Professional Division. Last fall, their kick-off event attracted more than 250 participants. Criminal defense attorney Ben Brafman, an eminent supporter of Judea and Samaria, will serve as master of ceremonies. An Open Event Mr. Feltman stressed that the dinner is not a “closed-door event” open only to luminaries or long-time supporters, and that he extends his “personal invitation to any Jew who cares deeply about Israel.” “Come take pride and celebrate with us, because without all of our devoted friends and supporters, nothing would be possible,” he said. Those who accept his invitation, he said, will “see and experience life on the front lines” and “understand what it’s like to live under the constant threat of terror and learn what it means to sacrifice for the Holy Land.” “But most importantly, you will be amazed to see how your participation can enable fledgling cities to not only survive but flourish with vitality and strength despite these trying circumstances,” he said. To make a reservation, Mr. Feltman can be reached at 516-239-9202 ext 12, or dinner@oneisraelfund.org. The website can be accessed at www.oneisraelfund.org. “The Jews of Yesha are truly the pride of our people. They are the royalty and strength of our nation. Join us at our Chai Anniversary Gala Banquet and celebrate life,” he said. Y
http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com
March 2012/Adar 5772
The Jewish Voice and Opinion
Page - 29
The Log: “Separate Yourself Not from the Community” Do It Now
The American Sephardi Federation National Sephardic Library has received a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to survey Sephardi-Mizrahi records, papers, photos, recordings, and other expressions of Sephardi and Mizrahi life in the Northeastern US. Those with something to add should call 212-294-8350 ext 3, 212-294-8301 ext 8357, or email rbelinfante@asf.cjh.org, with “Sephardic Survey” as the subject Reva Judas, founder of Nechamah for parents who suffered a miscarriage, will be taking a group to Israel on July 2-8, 2012. For trip details, call 201-692-9302 or email: nechamacomfort@gmail.com
Shabbat, March 10
“I Wish I Understood Everything I Was Saying Minyan,” Rabbi Steven Weil, Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 8:45am Shabbat Experience, Rabbi David Pietruszka, spons by the Jewish Learning Experience, Cong Zichron Mordechai, Teaneck, explanatory morning services followed by Kiddush and lunch, 9:15am; “Ask the
Rabbi Open Forum for Questions,” 4:30pm; third Shabbat meal with singing and Torah discussions, 5:20pm; Ma’ariv evening service with havdalah ceremony, 6:25pm, 201-966-4498 Learning Service, Rabbi Moshe Edelman, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 9:30am, 718-796-4730 “The ‘People of the Book’— But Which Book? ArtScroll, Koren/Sacks, Hertz, Etz Chaim: How Are We to Translate the Translations?” Jerome Chanes, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 11am “Religion and Politics,” Jerome Chames, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 5pm “Va’ani Tefillati: Personal Perspectives on Prayer,” Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 5pm, 718-796-4730
Motzei Shabbat, March 10
Comedy Night, featuring Vanessa Hollingshead, Dave Goldstein, and Adam Sank, includes show, snacks, and dessert, JCC, Bridgewater, 7:30pm, 908-7256994 ext 201 “Fiddler on the Roof,” performed by 7-11 year olds, Riverdale
YMHA, 8pm; also Sun., March 11m 3pm, 718-548-8200 Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David Dinner, honoring Debbie and Bruce Buechler, Debbie and Jack Becker, and Shoshana and Brad Shulman, at The Grove, Cedar Grove, 8:30pm, 973-736-1407 Cong Adath Israel of Elizabeth Dinner, honoring Ernest and Rose Wachtel and Dr. Yossi and Shaindy Pinsker, at the YMHA, Union, 8:30pm, aidinner@ gmail.com Comedy Café, featuring Eddie Brill, Lenny Marcus, May Scharf, and Judy Putterman, includes dinner, to benefit the RJC Youth Dept, 8:30pm, rjcyouthdirectors@gmail.com or 718-548-1850 Yeshivat Noam Dinner, honoring Sarah Leah and Nachum Barishansky, Beth and Jonathan Kepets, Rabbi Yehuda Minchenberg, and Samara Wasserman, Paramus, 8:30pm, 201-261-1919 DVD: “Opening the Door to a Home in Harmony,” for women, Yael Kaisman, spons by Tiferes, private home in Edison, 8:30pm, 732-572-4713
Parlor Meeting for The Rofei Cholim Cancer Society, includes dinner and dessert, private home in Teaneck, 8:30pm, 718-722-2002 “Opening the Gates: Reb Shlomo Carlebach’s 1989 Concert Tour of Poland,” with filmmaker Menachem Daum, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 8:30pm, 718-796-4730
Sun., March 11
Pre-Passover Matza Sale, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 8am, 201-568-1315 Blood Drive, Young Israel of East Brunswick, 8:30am-12:30pm Explanatory Morning Service, Rabbi David Pietruszka, spons by the Jewish Learning Experience, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 9:15am, 201-966-4490 Intermediate Minyan, includes Tefillin workshop, for men only, spons by the Jewish Learning Experience, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 9:15am, 201-966-4490 Shaimos Collection and Seforim Sale, including hard-tofind and out-of-print books and new and used children’s books,
continued on page 34
Page - 30
March 2012/Adar 5772
Cong Ohr Torah, Edison, 9:30am-6pm, siegeldad@optonline.net Super Sunday Fundraising Telethon, Jewish Federation of Northern NJ, Paramus, 9:30am7pm, 201-820-3911 Parents of Religious Kids (PORK) Support Group, for parents and families interested in reconciling issues resulting from their children becoming religious, Rimon Center, E Windsor, NJ, 10am, 609-918-9750 Riverdale Israel House (iHouse), gym and Israeli-style brunch, for children and adults, in Hebrew, Talya Leib, Riverdale YMHA, 10:30am, 718-548-8200 Post-Purim Carnial, rides, games, Purim shpiel, spin art, face painting, music, YMHA, Washington Heights, 11am-2pm, 212-569-6200 “Sunday Sewing Workshops,” for women and girls from age 8 and up, Lorri Taub, Cong Anshei Lubavitch, Fair Lawn, 11:30am, 201-800-1931 Exhibit: “Tell Your Children… and Their Children,” display of Holocaust-related artifacts belonging to survivors who are residents of northern NJ, JCC, Tenafly, reception with survivors and their families, 1-3pm, 201-408-1426 Spring Boutique and Fair, includes arts and crafts for children, Cong Arzei Darom, Teaneck, 1-4pm Bowl-a-Thon, spons by Cong Ohav Emeth, Highland Park, 2pm, 732-247-3038 Friendship Circle of Passaic County Bowling, for special-needs children, Van Houten Lanes, Clifton, 3pm, 973-694-6274 Hachnasat Sefer Torah, includes writing final letters at a
private home, dancing and parade with the new Torah to Cong Adath Israel, and seudat mitzvah, Hillside, 3:30pm, 908-583-4555 Cong Rinat Yisrael Dinner, honoring Yossi and Sara Prager, Steve and Vivienne Segal, and Lauren Adler, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 5pm Cong Bnei Torah of Clifton Dinner, honoring Mr and Mrs Eli Goldstein and Shmuel Greenbaum, divrei bracha from HaRav Noach Oelbaum, at Zichron Moshe, Passaic, 5pm, 973-310-1085 Cong Tifereth Israel Dinner, honoring Rabbi David and Bonnie Sheer, Russel and Sima Kelner, and Shlomo and Miriam Levy, Passaic, 6pm, dinner@tifereth-passaic.org Wine-Tasting, Hats, and Pesach Packages, featuring The Grapevine, Hats by Helen Baker, and Sweets on Cedar, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 7-9pm, shomreimensclub@gmail.com Gourmet Kosher Wine and Cheese Pairing, for those over 21, Brent Delman, Cong Etz Ahaim, Highland Park, 7:30pm, rjshak@yahoo. com or sshalmon@optonline.net JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “Remembrance,” Lafayette Theatre, Suffern, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 Hadassah Book Group: “The Prime Ministers” by Yehuda Avner, private home in Highland Park, 7:30pm, 732-545-3147 Pre-Pesach Wine-Tasting and Sale, Cong Beth Aaron, Teaneck, 8pm, 201-836-6210 “We’re Missing the Point: What’s Wrong with the Orthodox Jewish Community and How
Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion” to Fix It, Sincerity Isn’t Enough,” Rabbi Gidon Rothstein, Riverdale Jewish Center, 8pm, 718-548-2307
Mon., March 12
Deadline to Submit Entry into Art Competition: “Beauties of Nature in Northern NJ and Nahariya, Israel,” for those over 18, spons by the Jewish Federation of North NJ, 201-820-3907 Deadline to Order Passover Wine, Cong Beth Aaron, www. bethaaron.org/winesale Jewish Federation of Northern NJ Early Childhood Teachers Conference, at Temple Emanuel, Woodcliff Lake, 8:15am-1pm, 201-820-3918 Jewish Heritage Month: Poetry Reading: “G-d’s Optimism,” Yehoshua November, The Center for Jewish Life at Rockland Community College, Suffern, noon, 845-574-4422 On-Campus Matza Bakery, Rabbi Ely Allen, Ramapo College Hillel, Mahwah, 1pm, 201-820-3905 Semi Final Game: Bruriah Lightning Varsity Basketball Game vs Northshore Hebrew Academy High School, at Bruriah, Elizabeth, 7:30pm, 908-3554850 ext 179 SINAI Special Needs Institute Elementary School Open House, Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy, Livingston, 8pm, 973597-0770 ext 1158 “Studies in Medieval Jewish History: Rabad and Ba’al ha-Ma’or: A Study in Contrasts,” Rabbi Dr. Haym Soloveitchik, Riverdale Jewish Center, 8pm, 718-548-1850 “The Law and the Law: Furman v. Georgia and the Torah’s View of Capital Punishment,” Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Esq, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 8:15pm, 201-836-8916 “Parenting: How Effective Are We?” Rabbi Eliyahu Bergstein, private home in Bergenfield, 8:30pm, lsf202@nyu.edu Agudist Benevolent Society, Cong Agudath Israel, Highland Park, 9:30pm, 732-819-8300
Tues., March 13
“Jewish Short Fiction,” TeleConference Class, Andrew Fair, Dorot University without
Walls, 11am, 212-769-2850 EMUNAH Libby Cook Cookbook Luncheon, submit a recipe and bring a soup, salad, entrée, or dessert, private home in Bergenfield, 11am, sbrothman@hotmail.com “Your Gastrointestinal Health—From the Liver Down,” for seniors, Dr. Mark Grebenau, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 11:15am, 973-736-1407 On-Campus Matza Bakery, Rabbi Ely Allen, William Paterson University Hillel, Wayne, 12:45pm, 201-820-3905 “Jewish Gangsters,” TeleConference Class, Elizabeth Salston, Dorot University without Walls, 2pm, 212-769-2850 Purim Celebration, Allendale Community for Mature Living, Allendale, 2pm, 201-796-7788 “McCarthy Witch Hunt: A Not So Funny Reminiscence,” historian Dick Dumont, Fair Lawn Senior Center, 2pm, 201-796-1191 Smart Board Usability: Advanced Design Tools within Smart Notebook, for Jewish Day-School Teacher, Shimon Siegel and Batya Jacob, Yavneh Academy, Paramus, 4pm, 877-4559369 ext 1023 or 212-613-8127 Jewish Business Network After Hours, at the Metropolitan Cigar Club, Fairfield, NJ, 6:30pm, 201-563-2506 “Living with Alzheimer’s for Caregivers,” Valley Hospital, Ridgewood, 6:30pm, 973-586-4300 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “David,” AMC Theatres, Palisades Center Mall, W Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 Film: “Communicating for Israel,” Synagogue of the Suburban Torah Center, Livingston, 8pm, 973-994-2620, 973-994-0122 “Shaitel Purchasing, Care, and Maintenance,” Claire of Claire’s Accuhair, at Cong Beth Abraham, Bergenfield, 8pm Cong Ahavas Achim Book Club: “The Story of Beautiful Girl” by Rachel Simon, private home in Highland Park, 8:30pm, 732-247-0532 or 732-572-2285 “Haggadag Shel Pesach: One Theme from Beginning to End: Hakaros HaTov,” Rabbi Yehonason
http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com Alpren, introduced by Rabbi Yaakov Neuberger, to support Bayit Leplitot, Girls Town Jerusalem, private home in Teaneck, 8:30pm, 201-833-1719 or nrneff@yahoo.com
Wed., March 14
Deadline for Shmura Matza Sale, from the Shatzer Matza Factory, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 201-568-1315 or 917-209-0806 “The False Friend,” Myla Goldberg, JCC, Bridgewater, noon, 908-725-6994 “Short Story Discussion and Writing,” TeleConference Class, Dr. Margaret Jacobs, Dorot University without Walls, 3pm, 212-769-2850 Contemporary Israeli Poetry Group, in the original with English translation and discussion, Atara Fobar, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 7pm, 718-796-4730 Abused Women’s Confidential Support Group, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 7:15pm, 201-837-9090 Jewish 12-Step Meeting, JACS—Jewish Alcoholics, Chemically Dependent Persons, and Significant Others, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 7:30pm,
March 2012/Adar 5772 201-837-9090, ask for IRA (Information and Referral) or 201-981-1071 Schmooze on the News B’Ivrit, Danniel Sonnenschein, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 Mom’s Support Group, for mothers of children with special needs, Amy Brunswick, LSW, spons by Jewish Family Service of MetroWest, JCC, West Orange, 7:30pm, 973-765-9050 or 973-929-3129 JCC Film Festival: “Israel Inside,” Cultural Arts Theater, Rockland Community College, Suffern, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 “Chicks with Sticks Knitting Circle,” hats for preemies, children with cancer, and IDF soldiers in Israel, private home in Highland Park, 8pm, 732-339-8492 Cooking Class: Desserts, nutritionist Lara Szlamkowica and pastry chef Benett Harmolin, spons by Cong Ahavath Torah, private home in Englewood, 8pm, 917-209-0806 Early Childhood Parenting Workshop: Stress Reduction for You and Your Child, Dr. Miriam Adler, Clifton Cheder, Passaic, 8pm, 973-472-0011 TeleConference: “Teaching
The Jewish Voice and Opinion
Your Kids to Believe in Themselves,: Slovie Jungreis-Wolff, 8:30pm, events@metroimma.com “Days of Joy and Freedom: Holiday Curios and Controversies: Kitniyot Kontroversies— Past and Present,” Rabbi Jonathan Cohen, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 8:45pm, 201-568-1315
Thurs., March 15
Deadline for High School Juniors and Seniors to Apply to Spend July 19-Aug 5 with the Yiddish Book Center, Amherst, MA, full grant, no prior knowledge of Yiddish required, 413-256-4900 “Radio during the Nazi Period: Dangers on the Airwaves,” presentations on Nazi propaganda and responses from the Allies and Resistance, Richard Lucas and Laura Smith, Seton Hall Univ, South Orange, 8:30am-4 pm, 973-761-9751 or lawrence. frizzell@shu.edu “Teaching the Holocaust: Selected Topics and Issues,” including “Getting the Date Right” (why chronology is important), “The Question of Motivation” (why and how the Holocaust came about,
Page - 31
intentionalism), “Understanding the Psychological Appeal of Nazism to German Youth,” and “Rescue,” Dr. Harvey Kornberg and Dr. Marvin Goldstein, Holocaust/ Genocide Resource Center, Rider University, Lawrenceville, 8:30am2:15pm, 609-896-5345 La Leche League of Bronx/ Riverdale, Mia Damond Padwa, pregnant women, babies and small children welcome, healthy snacks, Riverdale YMHA, 9:30am, 718-543-0314 Career Development Workshop: “The Importance of Social Media,” dress for networking and bring business cards, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 10am, 201-837-9090 “Topics in Shemot,” Rabbi Daniel Besser, Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls, Teaneck, 11:45am “On Campus Matza Bakery,” Rabbi Ely Allen, Bergen Community College Hillel, Paramus, 12:30pm, 201-820-3905 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “My First Wedding,” AMC Theatres, Palisades Center Mall,
continued on page 31
Celebrate PASSOVER
Per Variety
Limit 4
YOU SAVE
29
1
99 .50
5
A&B Gefilte Fish
(Frozen) 20-oz. cont., Low Sugar or Sweet
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Kosher for Passover
NEW at ShopRite!
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Gold’s Horse Radish
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Goodman’s Macaroons
10-oz. cont., Chocolate, Coconut, Chocolate Chip or Almond
2
99
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64-oz. btl., Any Variety
0
0
5-lb. box Matzo
7
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With this coupon and an additional purchase of $50.00 or more (Excluding fuel and items prohibited by law). Limit one per family. Void if reproduced, sold or transferred. Cash Value 1/100 cent. Good at any ShopRite Store. 2012 Wakefern Food Corp. Effective Sun., March 18 thru Sat., March 24, 2012.
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•ShopRite •Aviv •Osem •Yehuda • Manischewitz •Streit’s • Horowitz • Goodman’s
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for
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March 2012/Adar 5772
btl., (Plus Dep. or Fee Where Req.) Cola, Ginger Ale, Orange, Up Rite (Lemon Lime)
All Kosher for Passover items are subjects to manufacturer’s availability and are while supplies last, where available.
Page - 32 Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion”
2
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Bernardsville Brookdale Columbia Park East Orange Elizabeth Emerson
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249
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9-oz. box, Any Variety Marshmallow Twists or
2 for
4 $4
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Englewood Essex Green Fair Lawn Hackensack Hillsborough Hillsdale
Hoboken Linden Livingston Lodi Metro Plaza Millburn
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Streit’s Whole Wheat Matzos
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& Soup Mix when you Purchase a 5-lb. Box Of YEHUDA Matzo
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Visit a ShopRite listed below for your Passover needs
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Mrs. Adler’s Gefilte Fish
1-lb. 8-oz. jar, Any Variety
March 2012/Adar 5772
Prices, programs and promotions effective Sun., Mar. 18 thru Sat., Mar. 24, 2012 in NJ, North of Trenton (excluding Ewing, Hamilton Square, Hamilton Marketplace, Pennington and Montague, NJ), including E. Windsor, Monmouth & Ocean Counties, NJ and Rockland County, NY. Sunday sales subject to local blue laws. No sales made to other retailers or wholesalers. In order to assure a sufficient supply of sale items for all our customers, we must reserve the right to limit purchases of any sale item to 4 purchases, per item, per customer, per week, except where otherwise noted. Minimum purchase requirements noted for any item in ad excludes prescription medications, gift cards, gift certificates, postage stamp sales, money orders, money transfers, lottery tickets, bus ticket sales, fuel and Metro passes, as well as milk, cigarettes, tobacco products and alcoholic beverages or any other items prohibited by law. Only one manufacturer coupon may be used per item and we reserve the right to limit manufacturer coupon redemptions to four (4) identical coupons per household per day, unless otherwise noted or further restricted by manufacturer. Sales tax is applied to the net retail of any discounted item or any ShopRite coupon item. Sales tax is applied to the full price of any item discounted with the use of a manufacturers’ coupon. Not responsible for typographical errors. Artwork does not necessarily represent items on sale; it is for display purposes only. Copyright© Wakefern Food Corp., 2012. All rights reserved.
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Page - 34
The Log
March 2012/Adar 5772
Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion”
continued from page 29
Cong Ohr Torah, Edison, 9:30am6pm, siegeldad@optonline.net Super Sunday Fundraising Telethon, Jewish Federation of Northern NJ, Paramus, 9:30am7pm, 201-820-3911 Parents of Religious Kids (PORK) Support Group, for parents and families interested in reconciling issues resulting from their children becoming religious, Rimon Center, E Windsor, NJ, 10am, 609-918-9750 Riverdale Israel House (iHouse), gym and Israeli-style brunch, for children and adults, in Hebrew, Talya Leib, Riverdale YMHA, 10:30am, 718-548-8200 Post-Purim Carnial, rides, games, Purim shpiel, spin art, face painting, music, YMHA, Washington Heights, 11am-2pm, 212-569-6200 “Sunday Sewing Workshops,” for women and girls from age 8 and up, Lorri Taub, Cong Anshei Lubavitch, Fair Lawn, 11:30am, 201-800-1931 Exhibit: “Tell Your Children… and Their Children,” display of Holocaust-related artifacts belonging to survivors who are residents of northern NJ, JCC, Tenafly, reception with survivors and their families, 1-3pm, 201-408-1426 Spring Boutique and Fair, includes arts and crafts for children, Cong Arzei Darom, Teaneck, 1-4pm Bowl-a-Thon, spons by Cong Ohav Emeth, Highland Park, 2pm, 732-247-3038 Friendship Circle of Passaic County Bowling, for special-needs children, Van Houten Lanes, Clifton, 3pm, 973-694-6274 Hachnasat Sefer Torah, includes writing final letters at a private home, dancing and parade with the new Torah to Cong Adath Israel, and seudat mitzvah, Hillside, 3:30pm, 908-583-4555
Cong Rinat Yisrael Dinner, honoring Yossi and Sara Prager, Steve and Vivienne Segal, and Lauren Adler, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 5pm Cong Bnei Torah of Clifton Dinner, honoring Mr and Mrs Eli Goldstein and Shmuel Greenbaum, divrei bracha from HaRav Noach Oelbaum, at Zichron Moshe, Passaic, 5pm, 973-310-1085 Cong Tifereth Israel Dinner, honoring Rabbi David and Bonnie Sheer, Russel and Sima Kelner, and Shlomo and Miriam Levy, Passaic, 6pm, dinner@tifereth-passaic.org Wine-Tasting, Hats, and Pesach Packages, featuring The Grapevine, Hats by Helen Baker, and Sweets on Cedar, Cong Shomrei Torah, Fair Lawn, 7-9pm, shomreimensclub@gmail.com Gourmet Kosher Wine and Cheese Pairing, for those over 21, Brent Delman, Cong Etz Ahaim, Highland Park, 7:30pm, rjshak@yahoo. com or sshalmon@optonline.net JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “Remembrance,” Lafayette Theatre, Suffern, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 Hadassah Book Group: “The Prime Ministers” by Yehuda Avner, private home in Highland Park, 7:30pm, 732-545-3147 Pre-Pesach Wine-Tasting and Sale, Cong Beth Aaron, Teaneck, 8pm, 201-836-6210 “We’re Missing the Point: What’s Wrong with the Orthodox Jewish Community and How to Fix It, Sincerity Isn’t Enough,” Rabbi Gidon Rothstein, Riverdale Jewish Center, 8pm, 718-548-2307
Mon., March 12
Deadline to Submit Entry into Art Competition: “Beauties of Nature in Northern NJ and
The Log is a free service provided to the Jewish community in northern and central New Jersey, Rockland County and Riverdale. Events that we list include special and guest lectures, concerts, boutiques, dinners, open houses, club meetings, and new classes. Announcements are requested by the 25th of the month prior to the month of the event. Due to space and editorial constraints, we cannot guarantee publication of any announcement. Please email them to : susan@jewishvoiceandopinion.com
Nahariya, Israel,” for those over 18, spons by the Jewish Federation of North NJ, 201-820-3907 Deadline to Order Passover Wine, Cong Beth Aaron, www. bethaaron.org/winesale Jewish Federation of Northern NJ Early Childhood Teachers Conference, at Temple Emanuel, Woodcliff Lake, 8:15am-1pm, 201-820-3918 Jewish Heritage Month: Poetry Reading: “G-d’s Optimism,” Yehoshua November, The Center for Jewish Life at Rockland Community College, Suffern, noon, 845-574-4422 On-Campus Matza Bakery, Rabbi Ely Allen, Ramapo College Hillel, Mahwah, 1pm, 201-820-3905 Semi Final Game: Bruriah Lightning Varsity Basketball Game vs Northshore Hebrew Academy High School, at Bruriah, Elizabeth, 7:30pm, 908-3554850 ext 179 SINAI Special Needs Institute Elementary School Open House, Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy, Livingston, 8pm, 973597-0770 ext 1158 “Studies in Medieval Jewish History: Rabad and Ba’al ha-Ma’or: A Study in Contrasts,” Rabbi Dr. Haym Soloveitchik, Riverdale Jewish Center, 8pm, 718-548-1850 “The Law and the Law: Furman v. Georgia and the Torah’s View of Capital Punishment,” Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Esq, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 8:15pm, 201-836-8916 “Parenting: How Effective Are We?” Rabbi Eliyahu Bergstein, private home in Bergenfield, 8:30pm, lsf202@nyu.edu Agudist Benevolent Society, Cong Agudath Israel, Highland Park, 9:30pm, 732-819-8300
Tues., March 13
“Jewish Short Fiction,” TeleConference Class, Andrew Fair, Dorot University without Walls, 11am, 212-769-2850 EMUNAH Libby Cook Cookbook Luncheon, submit a recipe and bring a soup, salad, entrée, or dessert, private home in Bergenfield, 11am, sbrothman@hotmail.com “Your Gastrointestinal
Health—From the Liver Down,” for seniors, Dr. Mark Grebenau, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 11:15am, 973-736-1407 On-Campus Matza Bakery, Rabbi Ely Allen, William Paterson University Hillel, Wayne, 12:45pm, 201-820-3905 “Jewish Gangsters,” TeleConference Class, Elizabeth Salston, Dorot University without Walls, 2pm, 212-769-2850 Purim Celebration, Allendale Community for Mature Living, Allendale, 2pm, 201-796-7788 “McCarthy Witch Hunt: A Not So Funny Reminiscence,” historian Dick Dumont, Fair Lawn Senior Center, 2pm, 201-796-1191 Smart Board Usability: Advanced Design Tools within Smart Notebook, for Jewish Day-School Teacher, Shimon Siegel and Batya Jacob, Yavneh Academy, Paramus, 4pm, 877-4559369 ext 1023 or 212-613-8127 Jewish Business Network After Hours, at the Metropolitan Cigar Club, Fairfield, NJ, 6:30pm, 201-563-2506 “Living with Alzheimer’s for Caregivers,” Valley Hospital, Ridgewood, 6:30pm, 973-586-4300 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “David,” AMC Theatres, Palisades Center Mall, W Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 Film: “Communicating for Israel,” Synagogue of the Suburban Torah Center, Livingston, 8pm, 973-994-2620, 973-994-0122 “Shaitel Purchasing, Care, and Maintenance,” Claire of Claire’s Accuhair, at Cong Beth Abraham, Bergenfield, 8pm Cong Ahavas Achim Book Club: “The Story of Beautiful Girl” by Rachel Simon, private home in Highland Park, 8:30pm, 732-247-0532 or 732-572-2285 “Haggadag Shel Pesach: One Theme from Beginning to End: Hakaros HaTov,” Rabbi Yehonason Alpren, introduced by Rabbi Yaakov Neuberger, to support Bayit Leplitot, Girls Town Jerusalem, private home in Teaneck, 8:30pm, 201-833-1719 or nrneff@yahoo.com
Wed., March 14
Deadline for Shmura Matza
http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com Sale, from the Shatzer Matza Factory, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 201-568-1315 or 917-209-0806 “The False Friend,” Myla Goldberg, JCC, Bridgewater, noon, 908-725-6994 “Short Story Discussion and Writing,” TeleConference Class, Dr. Margaret Jacobs, Dorot University without Walls, 3pm, 212-769-2850 Contemporary Israeli Poetry Group, in the original with English translation and discussion, Atara Fobar, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 7pm, 718-796-4730 Abused Women’s Confidential Support Group, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 7:15pm, 201-837-9090 Jewish 12-Step Meeting, JACS—Jewish Alcoholics, Chemically Dependent Persons, and Significant Others, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 7:30pm, 201837-9090, ask for IRA (Information and Referral) or 201-981-1071 Schmooze on the News B’Ivrit, Danniel Sonnenschein, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 Mom’s Support Group, for mothers of children with special needs, Amy Brunswick, LSW, spons by Jewish Family Service of MetroWest, JCC, West Orange, 7:30pm, 973-765-9050 or 973-929-3129 JCC Film Festival: “Israel Inside,” Cultural Arts Theater, Rockland Community College, Suffern, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 “Chicks with Sticks Knitting Circle,” hats for preemies, children with cancer, and IDF soldiers in Israel, private home in Highland Park, 8pm, 732-339-8492 Cooking Class: Desserts, nutritionist Lara Szlamkowica and pastry chef Benett Harmolin, spons by Cong Ahavath Torah, private home in Englewood, 8pm, 917-209-0806 Early Childhood Parenting Workshop: Stress Reduction for You and Your Child, Dr. Miriam Adler, Clifton Cheder, Passaic, 8pm, 973-472-0011 TeleConference: “Teaching Your Kids to Believe in Themselves,: Slovie Jungreis-Wolff, 8:30pm, events@metroimma.com “Days of Joy and Freedom: Holiday Curios and Controversies: Kitniyot Kontroversies—Past
March 2012/Adar 5772
and Present,” Rabbi Jonathan Cohen, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 8:45pm, 201-568-1315
Thurs., March 15
Deadline for High School Juniors and Seniors to Apply to Spend July 19-Aug 5 with the Yiddish Book Center, Amherst, MA, full grant, no prior knowledge of Yiddish required, 413-256-4900 “Radio during the Nazi Period: Dangers on the Airwaves,” presentations on Nazi propaganda and responses from the Allies and Resistance, Richard Lucas and Laura Smith, Seton Hall Univ, South Orange, 8:30am-4 pm, 973-761-9751 or lawrence. frizzell@shu.edu “Teaching the Holocaust: Selected Topics and Issues,” including “Getting the Date Right” (why chronology is important), “The Question of Motivation” (why and how the Holocaust came about, intentionalism), “Understanding the Psychological Appeal of Nazism to German Youth,” and “Rescue,” Dr. Harvey Kornberg and Dr. Marvin Goldstein, Holocaust/ Genocide Resource Center, Rider University, Lawrenceville, 8:30am2:15pm, 609-896-5345 La Leche League of Bronx/ Riverdale, Mia Damond Padwa, pregnant women, babies and small children welcome, healthy snacks, Riverdale YMHA, 9:30am, 718-543-0314 Career Development Workshop: “The Importance of Social Media,” dress for networking and bring business cards, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 10am, 201-837-9090 “Topics in Shemot,” Rabbi Daniel Besser, Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls, Teaneck, 11:45am “On Campus Matza Bakery,” Rabbi Ely Allen, Bergen Community College Hillel, Paramus, 12:30pm, 201-820-3905 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “My First Wedding,” AMC Theatres, Palisades Center Mall, W Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 Hasbara: Israel Film Presentation, with Rabbi Elliot Mathias, Cong Etz Chaim, Livingston, 8pm, 973-597-1655
Fri., March 16
Teen Leadership Conference:
The Jewish Voice and Opinion
“Bridging Words and Actions to Inspire,” Yahya Bakkar, includes sessions on depression and suicide prevention, bullying and violence prevention, and drug and alcohol education and prevention, JCC, Tenafly, 8am-2pm, 201-408-1470 “Did Plato Get It Right? Jewish Realism vs Greek Idealism,” Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, Chabad at the Shore, Ventnor, 12:15pm, 609-822-8500 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “Kaddish for a Friend,” Lafayette Theatre, Suffern, 1pm, 845-362-4400 Yachad/Yeshivat Noam Shabbaton, at Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, through Shabbat, March 17, 201-833-0755 Cong Anshe Chesed Shabbaton in Linden, NJ, for prospective members to discover this warm, safe Modern-Orthodox community with affordable homes and many yeshiva options, through Shabbat, March 17, 908-486-8616 PFOX Family First Retreat, for parents whose children identify with same-sex attraction, accommodations for kosher, Shomer Shabbos participants, Joe Dallas, through Shabbat,
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March 17, 804-453-4737
Shabbat, March 17
Cantor-in-residence, Englewood, Ahavath Torah, Cantor Yanky Lemmer, yltenor@gmail.com Carlebach Minyan, Cong Darchei Noam, Fair Lawn, 8:45am Siyyum of Massechet Brachot and Seudah Shabbat Luncheon, on Cindy Grosberg’s first yahrzeit observance, by Rabbi Robert Grosberg, Cong Ohr Torah, West Orange, 11:30am, 973-669-7320 Rabbi’s Tish: “After Beit Shemesh: Decoding the Debacle over Dress and Doctrine,” Rabbi Lawrence Zierler, Jewish Center of Teaneck, noon, 201-833-0515 Cong Beth Aaron Sisterhood Book Club: “Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian” by Avi Steinberg, private home in Teaneck, 4pm, 201-837-0651 Bnai Akiva Snif Chadash of Teaneck Darom, for students in grades 1-6, fun with an educational Zionist element, Cong Netivot Shalom, Teaneck, 4:45pm, davidmontag@rocketmail.com “Jews and Judaism in
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March 2012/Adar 5772
Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion”
continued from page 35
or at a private home in Teaneck, 201-362-3845 or 917-593-9290 Jewish Business Network, Regus Offices, E Rutherford, 8:30am, 201-568-0999 “9-11 Instruction in the Classroom,” for middle and high school teachers, NJ State Museum, Trenton, 8:30am, 609-292-9274 “Using Arts to Teach the Holocaust,” Roz Jacobs, Dr. Tamara Freeman, Stephen Ollendorff, and Matt Survis, Aidekman Jewish Community Campus, Whippany, 9:30am-2:30pm, 973-929-3194 Support Group for Caregivers, those caring for an older adult who is physically frail or suffering from memory loss, JCC, Tenafly, 11am, 201-408-1450 Lunch and Learn, for nonprofit volunteer managers, bring your own lunch, Volunteer Center of Bergen County, Hackensack, 11:30am, 201-489-9454 ext 118 Jewish History Month: Kumzitz, with Yerachmiel (Rocky) Ziegler, Student Union, Rockland Community College, Suffern, 12:30pm, 845-574-4422 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Sholom Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness,” with dirtector Joseph Dorman, JCC, West Orange, 12:30pm, 973-530-3473 “Doctor, Your Patient Will See You Now: Gaining the Upper Hand in Your medical Care,” Wilf JCC, Somerset, 7pm, 908-725-6994 Teaneck Board of Education planning meeting, open to all public and private school parents, senior citizens, & individuals without children, kosher refreshments served, Teaneck High School, 7:30pm, 201-862-2343
or tedwards@teaneckschools.org Film: “My Lovely Sister,” includes discussion with shaliach Avinoam Segal-Elad, YMHA, Wayne, 7:30pm, 201-820-3908 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “The Rescuers” and “The 36,” AMC Theatres, Palisades Center Mall, W Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 Mitzvah Makers, for teens, Cathie Izen, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Kaddish for a Friend,” JCC, West Orange, 7:30pm, 973-530-3473 “The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and Al-Qaeda,” Peter Bergen, JCC, Tenafly, 8pm, 201-569-7900 L’Dor V’Dor Hadassah Young Women’s Home Sweet Hadassah Celebration of Hadassah’s 100th Year Anniversary, featuring simcha customs and recipes from the Hadassah Cookbook, private home in Highland Park, 8pm, 732-816-4712
Fri., March 23
Deadline to Enter the Abe Oster Holocaust Remembrance Art Contest for Teens, original artwork, maximum size of 3 squarefeet, that conveys the lessons learned from a comprehensive study of the Holocaust and how those lessons may be applied to present communal or global issues, prizes include $1,000 and $500 college scholarships, for more information, call Rabbi Steve Golden at the JCC, Tenafly, 201-408-1426 “Back to Life: Recovering from Life’s Challenges,” Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, Chabad at
the Shore, Ventnor, 12:15pm, 609-822-8500 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Gei Oni—Valley of Fortitude,” JCC, West Orange, 12:30pm, 973-530-3473 Cantor Netanel Hershtik and the Hamptons Synagogue Choir conducted by Izchak Haimov, scholars-in-residence, for men and women, Young Israel of Teaneck, includes Friday night Carlebach-Style Davening; shacharit and mussaf minyanim, Shabbat, March 24, 9am, 201-837-1710
Motzei Shabbat, March 24
Concert: “When the Piano Meets a French Horn,” a collection of Israeli songs, instrumental pieces, arias from operas, and songs from musicals, featuring Mickey Rahav, Ayelet Cogan, Lianne Aharoni, and Ruth Cohen, JCC, Tenafly, 8:30pm, 201-820-3908 Film: “Mabul,” includes discussion with actor Michael Moshonov, JCC of Paramus, 8:30pm, 201-820-3908 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “Bride Flight,” AMC Theatres, Palisades Center Mall, W Nyack, 8:30pm, 845-362-4400 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Little Rose,” AMC Lowes, E Hanover, 9pm, 973-530-3473
Sun., March 25
Explanatory Morning Service, Rabbi David Pietruszka, spons by the Jewish Learning Experience, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 9:15am, 201-966-4490 Hair donation fund-raising event, min. 10 inches hair required, spons with Zichron Menachem, at Blush Salon, Englewood, 10am4pm, 201-568-2221 or 917-969-4835 “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: The Jewish Version,” based on a study commission by the OU analyzing the quality of life in modern Jewish marriage, Rabbi Steven Weil, Community Synagogue of Monsey, 10:15am, 845-356-3720 Riverdale Israel House (iHouse), gym and Israeli-style brunch, for children and adults, in Hebrew, Talya Leib, Riverdale YMHA, 10:30am; 718-548-8200 “Hagada Shel Pesach: One Theme from Beginning to End,” for women, Rabbi Yonason Alpren,
spons by Neve-Passaic Torah Institute, private home in Passaic, 11am, 908-278-4059 Hadassah South NJ Region Myrtle Wreath Luncheon: “Every Mother Is a Daughter: The Neverending Quest for Success, Inner Peace, and a Really Clean Kitchen, Dr. Perri and Sheila Solomon Klass, Forsgate Country Club, Monroe Twnshp, 11:30 am, 732-868-8353 or 732-549-7224 Teens Needed to Staff Family Soup Kitchen, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 11:45am4:15pm, 917-885-4542 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Land of Genesis,” Biblical Creation tied to lifecycle, for those ages 10 and up, and “Israel Inside,” for those 10 and up, with Gil Lainer, JCC, West Orange, first film, 12:30pm; falafel and other fare at an Israeli Café, 2pm; second film, 3:15pm, 973-530-3473 Last Day to See “A Bauhaus Artist in America: Claire Wagner Kosterlitz (1903-1997), The Jewish Museum of NJ, Ahavas Sholom Synagogue, Newark, 1-5pm, 973-4852609 or www.JewishMuseumNJ.org The Maccabeats in Concert, for adults and children age 6 and up, JCC, Tenafly, 2pm, 201-408-1450 Good Deeds Day, spons by the Jewish Federation of Northern NJ, Paramus, 2pm, 201-820-3948 Sunday Sports Circle, spons by the Friendship Circle for specialneeds children, Wayne Chabad, 2:30pm, 973-694-6274 Kids in Action Kindness Project: Matzah Baking with Seniors and Balloon Crafts and Magic, for boys and girls 6-10, Rabbi Michoel Goldin, includes pizza supper, Chabad House, Teaneck, 3:30pm, 201-907-0686 Pesach Boutique, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 5-9pm, mkopel35@gmail.com JACS Meeting, 12-steps meeting for Jews in recovery, Rabbi Steven Bayar, Cong B’nai Israel, Millburn, 6pm, 973-379-3811 Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva Dinner, honoring Rabbi Steven and Gila Miodownik and Dr. Steven and Iva Dyckman, at the DoubleTree Hotel, Somerset, 6:30pm, 732-572-5052 ext 207
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http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com
March 2012/Adar 5772
Finding a Minyan While Traveling When a minyan-seeker travels, he knows only his own schedule, delays, and time allowances for security clearance or re-clearance. He also knows times of peak travel and the extent of systemic delays due to weather or other factors. Dr. Yosi Fishkin of Bergenfield, creator of www.godaven. com, has a plan to help. When looking for a minyan in an airport or station, head for the nearest newsstand. If you can tell that there are insufficient fellow minyan-seekers there and one won’t be put together, and you have time, head for the next newsstand that’s closer to security. In the event of a particularly long wait, you may want to head for the newsstand in the central hub of the airport or station. If you are already part of an obvious or self-contained minyan, such as a tour group and you want to daven at your gate or platform, appoint someone to stand at the nearest newsstands to direct others to join you. If you have a regular minyan established, appoint someone to direct newcomers from the newsstand(s) to your minyan. In deciding to establish a seasonal or permanent minyan location, other than next to the newsstand, please have in mind the varied schedules of travelers who might not otherwise be able to participate. Also bear in mind that, just like in shul, an unfamiliar traveler who is anxious to find a minyan may be more in need of saying Kaddish. If you cannot locate a minyan because of location, e.g. a small sub-terminal or a baggage-claim area, think midpoint. You will have to use your imagination and that of other daveners here. Consider these two examples: 1. After you clear security, the terminal splits into A and B sections. If there is no minyan in sight at A’s newsstand, head for the dividing point between A & B on the assumption that B’s newsstand is similarly unproductive. 2. You are in baggage or car rental area, with no newsstand. Head for the middle position. This will take some time to take root. But it would certainly be an improvement on calling out to passersby and getting blank stares. For more information, go to www.godaven.com/airports.asp.
Global March
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Invasion As a result some 1,000 demonstrators entered Israel via an invasion of the Golan Heights and many reached the Druze town of Majdal Shams, located near the border. Dozens of ambulances were dispatched as the IDF used tear gas and live fire to force the Syrians back across the border. Before it was over, one Israeli-Arab who was participating was killed and another Arab was killed on the Syrian
side of the border. From all reports, Israel is aware of this year’s threat and has taken measures to prevent a recurrence of the 2011 events. “Israel, like every country in the world, has the right and obligation to guard its borders and protect them,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “My instructions are clear: to act with restraint but also with the determination required in order to protect our citizens and our borders.” S.L.R.
The Jewish Voice and Opinion
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New Jersey to Israel Congregation Ahavas Achim of Highland Park brought a group of 23 people from Highland Park and Edison to spend their winter vacation touring Israel. Groups have been coming to Israel under the auspices of the shul since 2003. They stayed at the Prima Kings Hotel, which is ideally located close to all of Jerusalem’s tourist hotspots. “What started as a show of solidarity to the people of Israel during the extremely tough times of the Intifada, has developed into an annual community bonding trip,” said director of the program, Lisa Goldberg. “It is an amazing feeling to be walking through the streets of Jerusalem with friends and family, experiencing together the beauty and culture of such an incredible country.”
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March 2012/Adar 5772
Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion”
continued from page 36
Jewish Federation and Vocational Services, Concordia Shopping Center, Monroe, 10:30am, 732777-1940 or 609-395-7979 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “The Decision Maker” and “Half a Ton of Bronze,” AMC Lowes, E Hanover, 11:30am, 973-530-3473 “Mystery Event and You Choose the Food,” Rabbi Ely Allen, Fairleigh Dickinson University Hillel, Chapel, Teaneck, 3:30pm, 201-820-3905 Smart Board Usability: Techniques for Increasing Student Engagement and the Software’s Multimedia Tools, for Jewish Day-School Teacher, Shimon Siegel and Batya Jacob, Yavneh Academy, Paramus, 4pm, 877-4559369 ext 1023 or 212-613-8127 “Matzah & Miracles: A Passover Musical,” includes dinner, Riverdale YMHA, 6pm, 718-548-8200 “Living with Alzheimer’s for Caregivers,” Valley Hospital, Ridgewood, 6:30pm, 973-586-4300 “In Memory’s Kitchen,” recipes from starving women in the Terezin concentration camp, Cara De Silva, Drew University, Madison, 7:30pm, 973-408-3600 Film: “Dolphin Boy,” includes discussion with producer Judith Manassen-Ramon, YJCC, Washington Twnshp, 7:30pm, 201-820-3908 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Beyond the Boundaries,” with producer Nina Hawn Zale, and adaptive ski instructor Dan Perl, JCC, West Orange, 7:30pm, 973-530-3473 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “Dressing America: Tales from the Garment Center,” “The Tailor,” and “The Rosenwald
Schools,” AMC Theatres, Palisades Center Mall, W Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 “Glory and Agony: Isaac’s Sacrifice and National Narrative,” Dr. Yael Feldman, Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life, Rutgers, New Brunswick, 7:30pm, 732-932-2033 Volunteer Orientation, to work with special-needs children and teens through the Friendship Circle of MetroWest, Livingston, 8pm, 973-251-0200 “Love in the Time of Darwinism,” Rabbi Simcha Weinstein, Student Union, Rockland Community College, Suffern, 8pm, 845-574-4422 “Preparing for Pesach: Contemporary Halachic Issues,” Rabbi Yaakov Glasser, Young Israel of Passai-Clifton, Passaic, 8:30pm, 973-330-1244 or 973-778-7177
Wed., March 21
Networking 101: Tools of Success,” Marty Latman, spons by Project Ezrah, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 11am, Jennifer@ezrah.org Book Group: “The Art of Fielding” by Chad Harbach, led by Ruthann Eckstein, JCC, Tenafly, 11:30am, 201-408-1457 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Beyond the Boundaries,” with producer Nina Hawn Zale, and adaptive ski instructor Dan Perl, JCC, West Orange, 11:30am, 973-530-3473 Seniors Trip to Discovery Times Square Museum Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit, leave the Riverdale YMHA 1pm, 718-548-8200 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “The Honeymoon Suite,” and “Love During Wartime,” JCC, West Orange, 5pm, 973-530-3473 Financial Planning, Stan
Paumblatt, Riverdale YMHA, 7pm, 718-548-8200 Schmooze on the News B’Ivrit, Danniel Sonnenschein, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Blood Relation,” with Andrew Silow-Carroll, JCC, West Orange, 7:30pm, 973-530-3473 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “Standing Silent,” Rockland Community College Cultural Arts Center, Suffern, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 “A Night of 4s: Understanding the Haggadah,” for men and women, Rabbi Daniel Yaakov Travis, private home in Edison, 8:30pm, 732-236-0528 or Siegelmom@optonline.net “Days of Joy and Freedom: Holiday Curios and Controversies: 2 Days, 1 Day, 1½ Days? Understanding the Opinions Regarding the Second Day in Israel,” Rabbi Jonathan Cohen, Cong Ahavath Torah, Englewood, 8:45pm, 201-568-1315
Thurs., March 22
Last Day to Donate Leftover Mishloach Manos Food for Distribution to People in Need, food must be in original packaging with kosher certification visible, drop offs at Congs Keter Torah, Rinat Yisrael, Beth Aaron, Beth Abraham, and Shaarei Tefillah or at a private home in Teaneck, 201-362-3845 or 917-593-9290 Jewish Business Network, Regus Offices, E Rutherford, 8:30am, 201-568-0999 “9-11 Instruction in the Classroom,” for middle and high school teachers, NJ State Museum, Trenton, 8:30am, 609-292-9274 “Using Arts to Teach the Holocaust,” Roz Jacobs, Dr. Tamara Freeman, Stephen Ollendorff, and Matt Survis, Aidekman Jewish Community Campus, Whippany, 9:30am-2:30pm, 973-929-3194 Support Group for Caregivers, those caring for an older adult who is physically frail or suffering from memory loss, JCC, Tenafly, 11am, 201-408-1450 Lunch and Learn, for nonprofit volunteer managers, bring your own lunch, Volunteer Center of Bergen County, Hackensack,
11:30am, 201-489-9454 ext 118 Jewish History Month: Kumzitz, with Yerachmiel (Rocky) Ziegler, Student Union, Rockland Community College, Suffern, 12:30pm, 845-574-4422 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Sholom Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness,” with dirtector Joseph Dorman, JCC, West Orange, 12:30pm, 973-530-3473 “Doctor, Your Patient Will See You Now: Gaining the Upper Hand in Your medical Care,” Wilf JCC, Somerset, 7pm, 908-725-6994 Teaneck Board of Education planning meeting, open to all public and private school parents, senior citizens, & individuals without children, kosher refreshments served, Teaneck High School, 7:30pm, 201-862-2343 or tedwards@teaneckschools.org Film: “My Lovely Sister,” includes discussion with shaliach Avinoam Segal-Elad, YMHA, Wayne, 7:30pm, 201-820-3908 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “The Rescuers” and “The 36,” AMC Theatres, Palisades Center Mall, W Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 Mitzvah Makers, for teens, Cathie Izen, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Kaddish for a Friend,” JCC, West Orange, 7:30pm, 973-530-3473 “The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and Al-Qaeda,” Peter Bergen, JCC, Tenafly, 8pm, 201-569-7900 L’Dor V’Dor Hadassah Young Women’s Home Sweet Hadassah Celebration of Hadassah’s 100th Year Anniversary, featuring simcha customs and recipes from the Hadassah Cookbook, private home in Highland Park, 8pm, 732-816-4712
Fri., March 23
Deadline to Enter the Abe Oster Holocaust Remembrance Art Contest for Teens, original artwork, maximum size of 3 square-feet, that conveys the lessons learned from a comprehensive study of the Holocaust and how those lessons may be applied to present communal or global issues, prizes include $1,000 and $500 college
http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com scholarships, for more information, call Rabbi Steve Golden at the JCC, Tenafly, 201-408-1426 “Back to Life: Recovering from Life’s Challenges,” Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, Chabad at the Shore, Ventnor, 12:15pm, 609-822-8500 NJ Jewish Film Festival: Cantor Netanel Hershtik and the Hamptons Synagogue Choir conducted by Izchak Haimov, scholars-in-residence, for men and women, Young Israel of Teaneck, includes Friday night CarlebachStyle Davening; shacharit and mussaf minyanim, Shabbat, March 24, 9am, 201-837-1710
Motzei Shabbat, March 24
Concert: “When the Piano Meets a French Horn,” a collection of Israeli songs, instrumental pieces, arias from operas, and songs from musicals, featuring Mickey Rahav, Ayelet Cogan, Lianne Aharoni, and Ruth Cohen, JCC, Tenafly, 8:30pm, 201-820-3908 Film: “Mabul,” includes discussion with actor Michael Moshonov, JCC of Paramus, 8:30pm, 201-820-3908 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “Bride Flight,” AMC Theatres, Palisades Center Mall, W Nyack, 8:30pm, 845-362-4400 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Little Rose,” AMC Lowes, E Hanover, 9pm, 973-530-3473
Sun., March 25
Explanatory Morning Service, Rabbi David Pietruszka, spons by the Jewish Learning Experience, at Cong Keter Torah, Teaneck, 9:15am, 201-966-4490 Hair donation fund-raising event, min. 10 inches hair required, spons with Zichron Menachem, at Blush Salon, Englewood, 10am-4pm, 201-568-2221 or 917-969-4835 “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: The Jewish Version,” based on a study commission by the OU analyzing the quality of life in modern Jewish marriage, Rabbi Steven Weil, Community Synagogue of Monsey, 10:15am, 845-356-3720 Riverdale Israel House (iHouse), gym and Israeli-style brunch, for children and adults, in Hebrew, Talya Leib, Riverdale YMHA, 10:30am; 718-548-8200
March 2012/Adar 5772
“Hagada Shel Pesach: One Theme from Beginning to End,” for women, Rabbi Yonason Alpren, spons by Neve-Passaic Torah Institute, private home in Passaic, 11am, 908-278-4059 Hadassah South NJ Region Myrtle Wreath Luncheon: “Every Mother Is a Daughter: The Neverending Quest for Success, Inner Peace, and a Really Clean Kitchen, Dr. Perri and Sheila Solomon Klass, Forsgate Country Club, Monroe Twnshp, 11:30 am, 732-868-8353 or 732-549-7224 Teens Needed to Staff Family Soup Kitchen, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 11:45am4:15pm, 917-885-4542 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Land of Genesis,” Biblical Creation tied to lifecycle, for those ages 10 and up, and “Israel Inside,” for those 10 and up, with Gil Lainer, JCC, West Orange, first film, 12:30pm; falafel and other fare at an Israeli Café, 2pm; second film, 3:15pm, 973-530-3473 Last Day to See “A Bauhaus Artist in America: Claire Wagner Kosterlitz (1903-1997), The Jewish Museum of NJ, Ahavas Sholom Synagogue, Newark, 1-5pm, 973-485-2609 or www. JewishMuseumNJ.org The Maccabeats in Concert, for adults and children age 6 and up, JCC, Tenafly, 2pm, 201-408-1450 Good Deeds Day, spons by the Jewish Federation of Northern NJ, Paramus, 2pm, 201-820-3948 Sunday Sports Circle, spons by the Friendship Circle for specialneeds children, Wayne Chabad, 2:30pm, 973-694-6274 Kids in Action Kindness Project: Matzah Baking with Seniors and Balloon Crafts and Magic, for boys and girls 6-10, Rabbi Michoel Goldin, includes pizza supper, Chabad House, Teaneck, 3:30pm, 201-907-0686 Pesach Boutique, Cong Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck, 5-9pm, mkopel35@gmail.com JACS Meeting, 12-steps meeting for Jews in recovery, Rabbi Steven Bayar, Cong B’nai Israel, Millburn, 6pm, 973-379-3811 Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva Dinner, honoring Rabbi Steven and Gila Miodownik and Dr. Steven and Iva Dyckman, at
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the DoubleTree Hotel, Somerset, 6:30pm, 732-572-5052 ext 207 Bergen County High School of Jewish Studies Dinner, honoring Rep Steve Rothman, Berni Zierler, and Frieda Hershman Huberman, Jewish Center of Teaneck, 7pm, 201-488-0834 Film: “Restoration,” Cedar Lane Cinemas, Teaneck, 7:30pm, 201-820-3908 “Music of Remembrance: The Boys of Terezin,” with Terezin survivor Leo Lowy, composer Lori Laitman, and musical performance by mezzo soprano Denise Mihalik, JCC, West Orange, 7:30pm, 973-530-3473 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “Nicky’s Family,” Lafayette Theatre, Suffern, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 Tanach, Rabbi Nati Helfgot, Cong Rinat Yisrael, Teaneck, 8pm, 201-837-2795 Writers Group, private home in Teaneck, 8:30pm, 347-200-5009 The Shmuz Passaic: “Putting Bitachon into Practice,” for men and women, Rabbi Ben Tzion Shafier, Yeshiva Passaic Torah Institute, 8:45pm, 646-206-9461
Mon., March 26
“Stopping Violence and Abuse: Protecting Our Children, Teens, and Young Adults,” Allison Blake, David Nash, Esq, and professors and professionals in the field, Ramapo College, Mahwah, 8am-3:30pm, 201-684-7624 Café Europa Holocaust Survivor Group, Jacob Weiland, MSW, Riverdale YMHA, 1pm, 718548-8200 ext 303 “The Initiative for Romani Music,” Petra Gelbart, spons by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Ramapo College, Mahwah, 1pm, 201-684-7409
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Mystery Event and Food Choice, Rabbi Ely Allen, Ramapo College Hillel, Mahwah, 1pm, 201-820-3905 “Genocide and Women,” Richard Dreyfuss, Michael Walzer, Martha Davis, and Timothy Snyder, Human Rights Institute, Kean University, Union, 5pm, 908-737-0256 “An Inspirational Evening for Women: Raising a Child with Soul,” Slovie Jungreis Wolff, includes service auction and dessert reception, Cong AABJ&D, West Orange, 7 pm, for info email nurseryfundraiser@gmail.com Film: “The Gefilte Fish Chronicles: Don’t Just Stand there, Cook; Don’t Just Sit there, Eat,” spons by HudsonJewish, at Temple Beth-El, Jersey City, 7pm “Living with Alzheimer’s for Caregivers: Communication: The Key to Better Understanding,” Alzheimer’s Association, at the Secaucus Public Library, 7pm, 973-586-4300 “The Pleasures and Perils of Translating the Bible,” Prof. Robert Alter, Rutgers Student Center, 7:30pm NJ Jewish Film Festival: “The Tenth Man” and “We Are Still Here,” with director Evan Kleinman and family, JCC, West Orange, 7:30pm, 973-530-3473
Tues., March 27
Jewish Business Network, Cadett Marketing, Saddle Brook, 8:15am, 201-880-1926 “Flowers Are Not Enough,” about domestic abuse, Naomi Ackerman, Cultural Arts Theater, Rockland Community College, Suffern, 11am, 845-574-4422 “A Zissen and Kosher Pesach: Questions and Answers,” for seniors, Rabbi Eliezer Zwickler, Cong Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West Orange, 11:15am, 973-736-1407
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NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Kaddish for a Friend,” JCC, West Orange, 11:30am, 973-530-3473 Film: “Doctors on the Dark Side,” with director Martha Davis and Richard Dreyfuss, Michael Walzer, and Timothy Snyder, STEM Auditorium, Kean University, Union, 5pm, 908-737-0256 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “My Australia,” AMC Loews, E Hanover, 5pm, 973-530-3473 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Kirot—The Assassin Next Door,” with Diane Finn of the Rachel Coalition, AMC Lowes, E Hanover, 7:30pm, 973-530-3473 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “Mabul (The Flood),”
Mazal Tov
Mazal Tov to the Bat Mitzvah Girls: Nava Shira Abrahams, Gila Alter, Sarah Berman, Rachel Domnitch, Eliana Farkas, Avital Goldblatt, Shira Hagler, Yael Haruni, Madeline Rose Horowitz, Naama Kobrin, Mollie Orlinsky, Sari Ort, Allison Reich, Michelle Rosen, Nava Schorsch, Elisa Stone, and Simona Weil; and the Bar Mitzvah Boys: Jonathan Aaron, Noah Aaron, David Adler, Andrew Braverman, Matthew Albert, Bryan Jack Alter, Adam Baron, Yair Caplan, Simcha Feldman, Nahum Felman, Shaya Forman, Jonathan Goldberg, Azriel Ze’ev Harris, Chaim Kazlow, Raanan Kimmel, Tzahi Lee, Ari Morrison, Etan Ohevshalom, Yonatan Potash, Gaby Schorr, Yaakov Shulman, Storm Sofer, Yisroel Meir Steinberg, Jonah Stiel, and Joshua Wertenteil Mazal Tov to Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva principal Rabbi Shraga Gross on his induction into the Ben Zakkai Honor Society of NCSY at its annual Scholarship Reception Mazal Tov to Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot on the publication of his new volume of collected essays on Tanach entitled “Mikra and Meaning” Mazal Tov to Shira Kosowsky who, as part of her Bat Mitzvah celebration, along with her family and the Jewish community of Teaneck and Bergenfield, donated hundreds of brand new books to the Camp Kaylie Library at OHEL, to be used by children of all abilities Mazal Tov to Alyssa and Baruch Colton, Rabbi Ian and Machla Shaffer, and Zahava and Elliot Rothschild on being honored at the Bergen County NCSY Scholarship Breakfast Mazal Tov to the Cong Keter Torah of Teaneck Bat Mitzvah Program graduates: Leora & Rebecca Barkai, Talya & Batya Danzer, Aviv & Shuli Davidovich, Mollie & Dawn Orlinsky, Sari & Faigy Ort, Leora & Julie Papier, Jordanna & Shani Rothschild, Shayna & Joy Sklar, Yardena & Dalia Stelzer and Eliana & Susan Zelig Mazal Tov to Ilana Teicher on being named a regional finalist in the Siemens Competition in Science, Mathematics, and Technology; Mazal Tov to Eliana and Ariella Applebaum on being named semi-finalists Mazal Tov to the Senior Big Brothers and Big Sisters who were honored at the JYEP Annual Carl Freyer Scholarship Breakfast for their kiruv work every Sunday morning with children from primarily unaffiliated Jewish homes: Michal Azizollahoff, Aaron Berger, Reuven Blackstein, Sarah Borodach, Rikki Brukner, Yaffa Cohen, Esther Esquenazi , Rebecca Farkas, Ilan Itzkowitz, Leora Kagedan, Massye Kestenbaum, Leore Lavin, Sarah Lederer, Ariella Levie, Akiva Levy, Meir Lichtenberg, Chana Miller, Leor Rapps, Reuven Rosen, Noam Safier, Melanie Samad, Ariel Schabes, Avi Seidman, Tzvi Wertenteil, Tzvi Wiesel, and Eitan Zecher Y
Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice and Opinion” AMC Theatres, Palisades Center Mall, W Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 “Inspirational Insights into the Hagaddah,” Rabbi Yaakov Glasser, Young Israel of Passaic-Clifton, Passaic, 8:30pm, 973-778-7177
Wed., March 28
Last Day to See the Exhibit: “Tell Your Children…and Their Children,” display of Holocaust-related artifacts belonging to survivors who are residents of northern NJ, JCC, Tenafly, 201-408-1426 Passover Model Seder, for seniors, Riverdale YMHA, 11:15am, 718-548-8200 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “The Honeymoon Suite,” and “Love During Wartime,” JCC, West Orange, 11:30am, 973-530-3473 “Short Story Discussion and Writing,” TeleConference Class, Dr. Margaret Jacobs, Dorot University without Walls, 3pm, 212-769-2850 “Children and the Holocaust: Key Works of Holocaust Literature for Children,” for middle & high school teachers, Master Teacher Institute in Holocaust Education, Bildner Center for Jewish Life, Rutgers, New Brunswick, 4:30pm, 732-932-2033 “Echoes & Reflections,” Holocaust education training, Grs 6-12 educators, Mercer County Holocaust-Genocide Resource Center, Mercer County Community College, West Windsor, 4:30pm, mcholgen@gmail.com NJ Jewish Film Festival: “The Decision Maker” and “Half a Ton of Bronze,” JCC, West Orange, 5pm, 973-530-3473 Passover Program, for special-needs teens, The Friendship Circle, Livingston, 6pm, 973-251-0200 Cong Keter Torah Dinner, honoring Francine and Ari Weisbrot and Joy and Barry Sklar, at the shul, Teaneck, 6:30pm Yeshvia Ohr Simcha of Englewood Dinner, honoring Jordan and Chana Katz, Rabbi and Mrs. Ezra Dworetsky, and Rabbi and Mrs. Chananel Field, at Crowne Plaza, Secaucus, 7pm, 201-816-1800 Abused Women’s Confidential Support Group, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 7:15pm, 201-837-9090 “Chicks with Sticks Knitting Circle,” hats for preemies, children with cancer, and IDF soldiers in Israel, private home in Highland Park, 8pm, 732-339-8492
Thurs., March 29
Career Development Workshop: “Follow Through to Generate Further Interest after the Interview,” Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 10am, 201-837-9090 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Music of Remembrance: The Boys of Terezin,” AMC Lowes, E Hanover, 11:30am, 973-530-3473 Mystery Event and You Choose the Food, Rabbi Ely Allen, Bergen Community College Hillel, Paramus, 12:30pm, 201-820-3905 “Kosher in the Kitch: Preparing Easy and Delicious Passover Delicacies,” Nina Safar, Cultural Arts Center Faculty Dining Room, Rockland Community College, Suffern, 12:30pm, 845-574-4422 “When Is War Just?” Michael Walzer, STEM Auditorium, Kean University, Union, 2pm, 908-737-0256 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “The Heaven Underground: The Weissensee Jewish Cemetery” in Berlin, JCC, West Orange, 5pm, 973-530-3473 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “David & Kamal,” AMC Theatres, Palisades Center Mall, W Nyack, 6pm, 845-362-4400 “Creative Housing Options and How to Navigate the System, for families with special-needs members, Rebecca Wanatick, JCC, West Orange, 7:30pm, 973-929-3129 Film: “Dolphin Boy,” includes discussion with producer Judith Manassen-Ramon, YMHA, Wayne, 7:30pm, 201-820-3908 Film: “My Lovely Sister,” includes discussion with shaliach Avinoam Segal-Elad, YJCC, Washington Twnshp, 7:30pm, 201-820-3908 “Can the Good Guys Win? Justice, Gaza, and Asymmetric War,” Michael Walzer, STEM Auditorium, Kean University, Union, 7:30pm, 908-737-0256
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March 2012/Adar 5772
Mitzvah Makers, for teens, Cathie Izen, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 7:30pm, 845-362-4400 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Remembrance,” with film critic Eric Goldman, JCC, West Orange, 7:30pm, 973-530-3473 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “Dolphin Boy,” AMC Theatres, Palisades Center Mall, W Nyack, 8:15pm, 845-362-4400 “9-11 Instruction in the Classroom,” for middle and high school teachers, Historic Railroad Terminal Building, Jersey City, 8:30pm, 609-292-9274
Fri., March 30
Deadline for the Orthodox Union’s Kosher Essay Question: 7501,000 Words on “What Does the Kosher Symbol on the Label Mean to Me?” “I Personally Identify with Kosher because…,” “I’m So Lucky That I Keep Kosher! Let Me Tell You What Happened One Time,” for students in grades 7-12, safrane@ou.org NJ Jewish Film Festival: “The Heaven Underground: The Weissensee Jewish Cemetery” in Berlin, JCC, West Orange, 11:30am, 973-530-3473 “I…I Don’t Know: Can a Jew Live with Questions?” Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, Chabad at the Shore, Ventnor, 12:15pm, 609-822-8500 “Art and Politics in the Nazi Period and the Postwar Cultural Impact of the Nazi Past,” Prof Paul Jaskot, spons by the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the History Club, Ramapo College, Mahwah, 1pm, 201-684-7409 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “Follow Me,” Lafayette Theatre, Suffern, 1pm, 845-362-4400 Shabbat Daven and Dine, Rabbi Shlomo Marks, Cong Mount Sinai, Jersey City, 7:30pm, JBStoler@gmail.com
Shabbat, March 31
Men’s Club Cholent Cookoff, Cong Ohr Torah, West Orange, 11:30am, 973-669-7320 Shabbos HaGadol Luncheon, spons by Cong Ahavat Shalom of the Teaneck Apartments, at the Torah Academy of Bergen County, Teaneck, noon, AsherHoff@gmail.com “How to Lead Tefillah,” basic skills for teens, Dr. Elli Kranzler, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 5pm, 718-796-4730 Shabbat Hagadol Drasha: “Items Certified as ‘Kosher for Pesach’ Aren’t Necessarily So,” Rabbi Lawrence Zierler, Jewish Center of Teaneck, 5:30pm, 201-833-0515
Motzei Shabbat, March 31
Film: “Mabul,” includes discussion with actor Michael Moshonov, JCC, Tenafly, 8:30pm, 201-820-3908 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “Sarah’s Key,” AMC Theatres, Palisades Center Mall, W Nyack, 8:30pm, 845-362-4400 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “The Tenth Man” and “Reuniting the Rubins,” JCC, West Orange, 9pm, 973-530-3473
Sun., April 1
Pre-Pesach Arts and Crafts, Cong Ohav Emeth, Highland Park, 10am, OEgroups@gmail.com Assemble Kosher-for-Pesach Food Packages and Deliver Them to Homebound Seniors in Lower Hudson County, spons by CareLink, meet at Bayonne JCC, 10am-1pm, 973-637-1715 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Foreign Letters,” for families, with producer Ela Their, JCC, West Orange, 1pm, 973-530-3473 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “David,” AMC Theatres, Palisades Center Mall, W Nyack, 1pm, 845-362-4400 MA in Holocaust and Genocide Studies Information Session: Graduate College Open House, Kean University, Union, 1-3pm, 908-737-0256 JCC Rockland Jewish Film Festival: “We Are Still Here,” AMC Theatres, Palisades Center Mall, W Nyack, 3:30pm, 845-362-4400 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “Remembrance,” with film critic Eric Goldman, JCC, West Orange, 4pm, 973-530-3473
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Film: “Restoration,” includes dinner and discussion with Gil Lainer of the Israeli Consulate, Barnert Temple, 6pm, 201-403-4537 NJ Jewish Film Festival: “My Best Enemy,” with art historian Dr. Deborah Zafman, includes dessert reception, JCC, West Orange, 7:30pm, 973-530-3473 Pasta Bar: Last Full of Chametz, Rutgers Hillel, New Brunswick, 8pm, 201-388-5281
Mon., April 2
“Poetry Co-Op,” TeleConference Class, Gerald Jonas, Dorot University without Walls, noon, 212-769-2850 Model Seder and Deli, Rabbi Ely Allen, Ramapo College Hillel, Mahwah, 1pm, 201-820-3905 Chocolate Seder, JCC Rockland, West Nyack, 6:15pm, 845-362-4400
Tues., April 3
Free Cone Day, at most Ben and Jerry’s Women’s Club for Widows, Jewish Federation and Vocational Services, Concordia Shopping Center, Monroe, 10:30am, 732-7771940 or 609-395-7979 Story Time, for mothers and babies 1-24 months, YJCC Rockland, West Nyack, noon, 845-362-4400 Model Seder, for college students and the elderly, Rabbi Ely Allen, spons by William Paterson University Hillel, YJCC, Wayne, 12:45pm, 201-820-3905 Model Seder and Deli, Rabbi Ely Allen, Fairleigh Dickinson University Hillel, Chapel, Teaneck, 3:30pm, 201-820-3905
Wed., April 4
Contemporary Israeli Poetry Group, in the original with English translation and discussion, Atara Fobar, Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, 7pm, 718-796-4730 Jewish 12-Step Meeting, JACS—Jewish Alcoholics, Chemically Dependent Persons, and Significant Others, Jewish Family Service, Teaneck, 7:30pm, 201-837-9090, ask for IRA (Information and Referral) or 201-981-1071
Thurs., April 5
Model Seder and Deli, Rabbi Ely Allen, Bergen Community College Hillel, Paramus, 12:30pm, 201-820-3905
Fri., April 6, First Seder
Passover Seder, for residents, Daughters of Israel Nursing Facility, Rabbi Zvi Karpel, West Orange, 5:15pm, 973-400-4464 Passover Seder, for local college students, Rabbi Ely Allen, spons by Northern NJ Hillel, private home in Bergenfield, 7pm, 201820-3905, also Saturday, April 7
Mon., April 9
NCSY Great Adventure Outing, 551-486-7136 or dovncsy@ gmail.com Drunk Driving Course, Rabbi Ely Allen, Ramapo College Hillel, Mahwah, 1pm, 201-820-3905
Tues., April 10
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Justice for Victims
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continued from page 1
Americans who have been killed or maimed by Palestinian terrorists. Bipartisan Support The letter, which was helped along by the Zionist Organization of America as well as by the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), is emblematic of the broad support the issue enjoys in Congress. After almost 30 years in office, Mr. Berman, a pro-Israel liberal Democrat, is currently fighting for his seat in Congress, after redistricting forced him to confront his equally pro-Israel Democratic colleague, Brad Sherman. Mr. Walsh, on the other hand, was sworn into office in 2011 after defeating three-term Democratic incumbent Melissa Bean by a margin of 291 votes; he also
faces redistricting this year. A sharp critic of President Barack Obama’s Israel and Middle East policies, Mr. Walsh says that to achieve peace, the US must publicly side with Israel so that Palestinians will “face the combined wrath of Israel and the US.” The Berman-Walsh letter was prompted by what many observers see as an uptick in the level of terrorist violence in Israel, especially since the October 2011 release of Palestinian terrorists in the deal forged with Hamas in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. More than a dozen of the terrorists who were released had been found guilty of murdering Americans or causing them grievous bodily injury. Some of these terrorists have already returned to violence, despite their vows
not to do so. At least four have been rearrested by the IDF. Libel for Prosecution According to the letter, as long as the terrorists who harmed Americans were imprisoned in Israel, the US Justice Department had no reason to pursue them, but once these “terrorists with American blood on their hands were released under duress by Israel,” the situation was changed. “Because of the circumstances of this forced release, their prosecution under American law is not precluded by principles of double jeopardy, and they should, if prosecuted, suffer the full consequences of having violated American law,” said the letter. According to reports, before the terrorists were released, Mr. Holder had been in touch with the Parents Forum, a group of American citizens whose children have been killed or wounded by Palestinian terrorists in Israel. Mr. Holder reportedly told the parents that he had made it clear to the Israelis that the Obama administration opposed the release of terrorists involved in attacks on Americans in the exchange for Mr. Shalit. According to Dan Pollak and Joshua London, co-directors of the ZOA’s Department of Government Relations, the Berman-Walsh letter is Congress’s attempt to urge the administration to act on its disapproval of the release of those terrorist-prisoners. Koby Mandell The Berman-Walsh letter focuses on the Department of Justice’s Office for Justice of Overseas Terrorism (OJVOT), which was established as part of the Koby Mandell Act of 2005. Named for an American 13-year-old who had made aliyah with his parents and was brutally stoned to death by Palestinian terrorists in May 2001, the Koby Mandell Act was initiated by the Zionist Organization of America who passed it to key Senate and House co-sponsors so that all foreign nationals, including Palestinian Arabs, who have killed or harmed Americans overseas could be captured and brought to justice. In the Senate, the Koby Mandell Act was introduced by Senators Wayne Allard (R-CO), Evan Bayh (D-IN), Kit Bond (R-MI), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Zell Miller
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Long-Time Arab-American Pascrell Supporter’s Accusations of “Israel Firsters” Receive No Condemnation from Pascrell
If anyone had any doubts which of the
Democratic Party candidates for Congress in NJ’s newly redrawn 9th District has the support of the anti-Israel contingent among its voters, the question was put to rest last month by Dr. Aref
Justice
Assaf, president of the Paterson-based American Arab Forum. Twice in as many weeks, Dr. Assaf published op-eds praising Rep Bill Pascrell, who currently represents the 8th District, and castigating Rep Steve Rothman, who
currently represents the 9th, as well as Mr. Rothman’s pro-Israel supporters. Because of redistricting, the two incumbents will face off against each other in the June 5 Democratic primary. Because
provide the impetus necessary for the Justice Department to do the right thing,” she said. EMET, ZOA, and several other groups said they intend to pursue the issues raised by the Berman-Walsh letter.
“We’ll continue to push to ensure that the DoJ receives proper congressional oversight and that these victims receive the justice they deserve,” said Mrs. Stern. S.L.R.
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cont. from page 42
(D-GA), Don Nickles (R-OK), Rick Santorum (R-PA), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Arlen Specter (R-PA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR). In the House, it was introduced by Reps. Rob Andrews (D-NJ), Ileana RosLehtinen (R-FL), Jim Saxton (R-NJ), Edward Schrock (R-VA), Mark Souder (R-IN), Henry Waxman (D-CA), and Joe Wilson (R-SC). Do-Nothing Office The Berman-Walsh letter to Mr. Holder expresses Congress’s concern over the failure of the OJVOT to achieve its objective. “Of the 71 cases of terror attacks resulting in American casualties in and around Israel since the signing of the Oslo Accords, the Department of Justice has never indicted, extradited, or prosecuted a single Palestinian terrorist,” said the letter. The number of American victims of attacks stands at 54 killed and 83 wounded. “Neither the OJVOT nor any other section in the Department of Justice has, to our knowledge, done anything to enforce applicable American law in these cases,” said the letter. The Berman-Walsh letter includes an appendix listing several cases of American victims who were killed or injured by Palestinian terrorists released in exchange for Mr. Shalit. “Murder and assault of American citizens anywhere in the world must be promptly and effectively punished by the United States in United States courts under United States law. We call on you to carry out this obligation or explain why such prosecutions are not appropriate for the United States to pursue,” said the letter. “First Step” Sarah Stern, founder and president of EMET, was delighted by the “wonderful response the Berman-Walsh letter has received from members of Congress” and called it “a first step.” “We’re hopeful that this letter and future congressional oversight on this issue will
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Pascrell’s Anti-Israel Supporters the 9th District has been a Democratic stronghold since 1982, the primary will probably determine who will represent the newly redrawn district in Congress. More than one pro-Israel insider has told reporters that, besides the Presidential election itself, the June 5 primary is “the most important race in the pro-Israel community during this election cycle.” “Israel Firster” In both his pieces, Dr. Assaf, a longterm supporter of Mr. Pascrell and a donor to his campaigns, praised Mr. Pascrell as a loyal American and accused Mr.
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continued from page 43
Rothman of being an “Israel firster,” a term coined by the virulently anti-Israel and reputedly antisemitic pundit Pat Buchanan. The term refers to a legislator who puts Jewish interests ahead of America’s. Dr. Assaf accused Mr. Rothman’s pro-Israel supporters of being more loyal to the Jewish State than they are to America. In his first op-ed, which was published in the NJ Star-Ledger with the headline, “Rothman Is Israel’s Man in District 9,” Dr. Assaf said, “As total and blind support for Israel becomes the only reason for choosing Rothman, voters who do not view the elections in this prism
will need to take notice. Loyalty to a foreign flag is not loyalty to America’s.” In his piece, Dr. Assaf referenced a private letter sent on unofficial stationery by 15 presidents of Orthodox synagogues and other community leaders in Passaic, endorsing Mr. Rothman and urging registered Republicans and Independents in the Jewish community to switch affiliation to Democrat in order to vote for Mr. Rothman in the June primary. “While we understand this choice maybe difficult for you, please know that after the primary you can immediately reverse your party affiliation back to Republican or Independent; how you vote in the primary in June does not in any way influence how you vote in November,” the shul presidents said. In addition to his support for Israel, the Orthodox leaders said that, of the two men, Mr. Rothman “best understands our needs and interests.” Voters have until April 11 to change their affiliation in order to vote in the primary. Breaking the Law? Dr. Assaf implied that by signing the letter, the synagogue presidents and community leaders had broken the law dealing with their synagogues’ tax-exempt status. In his piece, Dr. Assaf called on the IRS “to investigate the ramifications of such a violation.” In fact, there is no violation in such a private letter, a detail Dr. Assaf seemed to acknowledge in his next sentence when he admitted, “It may turn out to be a non-issue.” Nevertheless, he took the Orthodox leaders to task for “encourag[ing] their congregation to go against their faith and register Democratic.” He argued that most Orthodox Jews, “like observant American Muslims” would naturally “choose the Republican platform for strictly religious reasons dealing with abortion, homosexuality, gay marriage, and support for Israel.” Urging Orthodox Jews to change their affiliation is, Dr. Assaf said, “just plain dishonest.” Not to be outdone, he said, Republican Muslims would emulate the Jewish community in an attempt to “cancel out the ‘converted’ Jewish votes.”
http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com Nothing New But this was not a new idea that had just occurred to Dr. Assaf. Weeks earlier, on January 10, he posted on Facebook that “Pascrell is the right man. He has been most accessible and helpful to his constituents. The Arab and Muslim community must rise up to ensure Pascrell is the winner on June 5. I will do my part.” In his second op-ed, which was published in The Record at the beginning of March, Dr. Assaf once again did his “part,” accusing the Jewish community of supporting Israel over the US. However, he went on to complain that “Jewish sources” had warned that “Pascrell’s home turf” is “swarming with a large and suspect community of Arabs and Muslims.” “This is nothing short of deplorable blanket racism,” wrote Dr. Assaf. “We are being depicted somehow like a fifth column; we are perceived as ineffective at harnessing our political power. Pascrell is being condemned for failing to be 100 percent on the side of a foreign country and for sleeping with a suspect community whose vote will most likely determine the outcome of the elections.” In fact, while Mr. Pascrell has been criticized for his involvement with terrorist
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apologists in the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations (CAIR), no one castigated him for paying attention to his Muslim constituents. Most accounts in Jewish newspapers have discussed Mr. Pascrell’s large Muslim constituency (in the United States, only the Muslim population of Dearborn, Michigan is larger) as one of the factors that account for his voting record. Gang of 54 No one denies that Mr. Pascrell has voted for US aid to Israel, but his record of support for the Jewish state has not been consistent. He has supported some measures which have been distinctly anti-Israel, such as joining the “Gang of 54” Congressmen who signed a 2010 letter attacking Israel for defending itself against Hamas terrorists in Gaza. The letter urged President Barack Obama to pressure Israel into lifting its defense blockade on Gaza, an embargo imposed by the Jewish state after Hamas won control of Gaza. Mr. Pascrell’s campaign spokesman, Sean Darcy, said the congressman signed the letter because he “believes that support for Israel’s right to defend itself and a concern for the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip are not mutually exclusive.”
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Mr. Rothman’s communications director, Aaron Keyak, said Mr. Rothman did not sign the letter because “it wrongfully drew a moral equivalence between Israel protecting its citizens from terrorist attacks and the Gazans who were shielding and providing aid and comfort to the terrorists launching those attacks.” US Benefits from Israel Over the years, Mr. Rothman has championed the Jewish State, writing and speaking out extensively on why US support for Israel is essential not only for Israel’s national security, but for America’s as well. In op-ed pieces and speeches, he has listed the benefits the US derives from its support for Israel, including: technological research and intelligence cooperation between the two countries; access to Israel’s location as a port of call for US troops, ships, aircraft, and intelligence operations; and the ability of the US to stockpile arms, fuel, munitions, and other supplies on Israeli soil to be accessed whenever America needs them in the region. In addition, about 70 percent of the $3 billion Israel receives in US aid must
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March 2012/Adar 5772
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Ess Gezint: “Fresh and Easy Kosher Cooking” Cookbook author Leah Schapira has a suggestion for parents: “Never force children to eat. Instead, teach them to cook.” The co-founder of www.cookkosher.com, which invites readers to contribute their own recipes, Ms. Schapira has filled her delightful Fresh & Easy Kosher Cooking (Artscroll) with great ideas and suggestions. Here are some of her Pesach recommendations.
Egg & Liver Tower
1 large onion, thinly sliced into rounds 1 cup oil plus some to brush a can 1 8-oz can emptied of all
Chocolate Mousse with Pear Chips
contents Prepared chopped liver Prepared egg salad 1 large tomato, sliced into rounds
Heat cup of oil in a small saucepan over high heat. When hot, add the onions and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 12-15 minutes (or more), stirring with a fork every so often, until they turn a golden brown. Place paper towels on a flat tray or pan. Spread the cooked onions in a single layer over the paper towels and let dry. The onions will crisp up while drying. Using a can opener, remove both ends of the can, forming a ring mold. Wash thoroughly. Brush the inside of the can with oil and set in the center of an individual plate. Put 3-4 Tbs liver inside the can. Pat down well. Position a slice of tomato over the liver; it should cover entirely. Add 3-4 Tbs of egg salad (with enough oil or mayonnaise to hold it together). Pat down well. Carefully remove the ring mold and garnish with crispy onions. Repeat on as many plates as necessary.
8 eggs, separated 12 oz bittersweet chocolate (not baking) 1 tsp instant coffee dissolved
in 3 Tbs boiling water ¼ cup sweet red wine 2 firm pears 1 cup sugar
In a mixer, whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Over a double-boiler, melt the chocolate with the coffee. Beat egg yolks with a fork and quickly add to the chocolate mixture, mixing well. Add the wine. Remove from the heat. Fold in the egg whites until combined. Place in individual cups for serving and refrigerate. To prepare the pear chips, preheat oven to 325º. Thinly slice pears and lightly coat each side with sugar. Place pear slices in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Turn the pears over and bake an additional 15-20 minutes. Turn off oven and leave pears in the oven to cool and dry. Before serving the mousse, garnish with the caramelized pear chips.
Sweet-Potato Fries 2-3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into French-fry strips 3 Tbs oil
½ tsp sugar ½ tsp salt ½ tsp parsley flakes
Preheat oven to 450º. On a heavy-duty aluminum baking sheet lined with parchment paper, toss potatoes with oil and spread in one layer. Bake for 40-60 minutes until lightly browned and crispy at the edges. Combine sugar, salt, and parsley; toss potatoes in the mixture.
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Pascrell’s Anti-Israel Supporters be used by the Jewish state to purchase American military equipment. “This provides real support for US high-tech defense jobs and contributes to maintaining our industrial base. This helps the US stay at the very top in the manufacturing of our own cutting-edge military munitions, aircraft, vehicles, missiles, and virtually every defensive and offensive weapon in the US arsenal—with the added contribution of Israel’s renowned technical knowhow,” said Mr. Rothman. Clamping Down on Rhetoric During his time in Congress, Mr. Pascrell has sometimes followed Mr. Rothman’s proIsrael lead and other times ignored it. Since 1997, there have been approximately a dozen pro-Israel measures co-sponsored by Mr. Rothman which Mr. Pascrell agreed to sign onto. But on 18 other
occasions, Mr. Pascrell broke with Mr. Rothman over issues endorsed by the pro-Israel community. Josh London, co-director of the Zionist Organization of America’s Department of Government Relations, called Mr. Rothman “a nononsense pro-Israel leader” who has “championed USIsrael cooperation in all areas, including energy, security, and defense.” Equally important, Mr. Rothman has many times called attention to examples of official Palestinian hatred and incitement against Jews and Israel. Some New Jersey residents who have followed Dr. Assaf’s articles believe Mr. Rothman’s insistence on publicizing official PA anti-Israel hatred and incitement in Palestinian government-controlled media and textbooks, were the cause of
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continued from page 45 the pro-Pascrell, anti-Rothman op-ed pieces. Jewish Support Despite Mr. Pascrell’s spotty record on Israel while he was representing the 8th District, he was supported by NORPAC, the NJ-based pro-Israel political action committee, which, just last fall, raised $10,000 for him. On the other hand, NORPAC has been Mr. Rothman’s third largest contributor over the course of his congressional career, totaling more than $80,000. NORPAC is supporting Mr. Rothman over Mr. Pascrell in the June primary. “You can’t compare Pascrell to Rothman,” said Dr. Ben Chouake, president of NORPAC. He called Mr. Pascrell’s support for Israel “average,” and, therefore, worthy of a relationship with NORPAC. However, Dr. Chouake said that Mr. Rothman’s support has been “great.”
“You feel compelled to support the person who is great,” said Dr. Chouake. “If you have someone who is okay verses someone who is extraordinary, you’re going to go where you get your inspiration.” Dr. Chouake said the fact that Mr. Rothman has been able to gain such support among Orthodox Jews in the PassaicClifton community, despite Mr. Pascrell’s 14 years representing the district, indicates “[Mr’ Pascrell’s] failure to engage those people and say I’m on your side.” “If Pascrell had convinced them that he was extremely interested in the US-Israel relationship and wanted to facilitate it, the letter from the community leaders would never have gone out. US-Israel relations are very important to them,” he said.
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March 2012/Adar 5772
Pascrell’s Anti-Israel Supporters Anti-Semitic Charge Mr. Pascrell’s cause in the Jewish community was not helped by Dr. Assaf’s op-eds, which were widely recognized as blatantly antisemitic. Members of the Jewish community as well as some pundits expressed outrage at Mr. Pascrell’s pointed refusal to condemn Dr. Assaf’s remarks. Mr. Pascrell would not even criticize the headline that accused Mr. Rothman as serving as “Israel’s man” or disassociate from Dr. Assaf for questioning Mr. Rothman’s patriotism. “As smears go, the charge of ‘loyalty to a foreign flag’ against a Jewish Congressman is about as close as one can get to naked antisemitism without resorting to overt epithets. In modern times, it dates back to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” said columnist Joel Mowbray, noting that one of Hitler’s most common lines was that Jews were loyal to other forces, such as Jewish international financiers, rather than to Germany. Writing in the Washington Free Beacon, Adam Kredo agreed, calling Dr. Assaf’s accusation “a borderline antisemitic allegation” and “dangerous political libel” that resonates “with historic and toxic anti-Jewish prejudices.”
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continued from page 47
Mr. Mowbray noted that despite the ugliness of the charge, it “strikes a chord within certain segments, most of whom these days are found on the Left—the kind of people who vote in Democratic primary elections.” Keeping America Strong Mr. Rothman did not deny that he is proudly pro-Israel, but said that position is also pro-America. His spokesman, Mr. Keyak, issued a statement explaining that “as part of strengthening America’s national security, Congressman Rothman is a proud supporter of the United States’ most important strategic ally and friend in the Middle East, the State of Israel. He says so without apology to anyone.” “Even during tough elections, we should be able to debate policy without having our political opponents question our patriotism,” said Mr. Keyak, calling on Mr. Pascrell to “disavow these attacks and ask his supporters to stop this harmful, dishonest, and bigoted rhetoric.” Dr. Chouake agreed, responding to Dr. Assaf’s charge that Mr. Rothman’s supporters put Israeli interests ahead of America’s with a simple “Give me a break.”
“Supporting Israel is anti-American? Israel is the most solid ally America has. Besides the strategic value, there are natural shared values. Americans like Israel, they support Israel, and they feel that one of America’s missions is to befriend Israel,” he said, noting that, since the attacks of September 11, “it’s not Israeli terrorism that scares the bejeebies out of the entire world.” No Condemnation Instead of responding himself, Mr. Pascrell let Herb Klein, a Jewish octogenarian and former one-term member of Congress (he held Mr. Pascrell’s seat from 19931995), attempt to defend Mr. Pascrell’s refusal to criticize Dr. Assaf. In a prepared statement, Mr. Klein pointed out that Dr. Assaf is not affiliated with Mr. Pascrell’s campaign and then went on to call Mr. Rothman “a decent and patriotic American.” For that reason, said Mr. Klein, he and Mr. Pascrell wished Mr. Rothman had opted to run against Republican Congressman Scott Garrett in the Fifth District. Similar Choices It was an option for which Mr. Rothman was eligible and which Mr. Pascrell, for obvious
http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com reasons, would have preferred him to choose. But most of Mr. Rothman’s constituents, about 54 percent from the old 9th District have been subsumed into the newly redrawn 9th. Only about 21 percent of them are now included in District 5, a Republican stronghold which is represented by Mr. Garrett. On the other hand, about 43 percent of Mr. Pascrell’s constituents from the former 8th District are now part of the new 9th. About 33 percent of them are now included in District 11, which is represented by Republican incumbent Rodney Frelinghuysen. While Mr. Pascrell and his supporters have severely criticized Mr. Rothman for opting not to oppose Mr. Garrett, they have said nothing about Mr. Pascrell’s own eligibility to oppose Mr. Frelinghuysen in District 11. Like Mr. Rothman, Mr. Pascrell chose not to challenge a strong sitting Republican incumbent. Why No Condemnation Mr. Mowbray suggested two explanations for Mr. Pascrell’s refusal to disavow Dr. Assaf’s accusations, neither of them likely to attract additional Jewish supporters. The first was that, at 75, Mr. Pascrell is “just a stubborn old goat who doesn’t grasp the inherently anti-Semitic nature of alleging dual loyalties.” This explanation would render Mr. Pascrell “somewhere between callous and clueless,” said Mr. Mowbray. The second explanation he offered is more sinister and assumes Mr. Pascrell is more cunning than oblivious, and is playing for votes from Arabs, Muslims, and other Democrats who have increasingly turned their backs on Israel. “Polling indicates that animosity toward Israel is not confined to a fringe segment of the Left. Gallup’s annual poll on support for Israel routinely shows that Republicans overwhelmingly back Israel (80 percent or higher), whereas support for Israel among Democrats hovers around roughly 50 percent,” he said. More Anti-Israel Writing Mr. Mowbray suggested that, armed with this information, Mr. Pascrell may be encouraging more such pieces from Dr. Assaf, whose anti-Israel writing in the past includes essays with titles such as “Israel Exists but I Will Never Accept It as a Jewish State.” In 2004, in a letter to the Star-Ledger, he wrote that he was troubled by the paper’s support “for the Israeli apartheid barrier,” referring to the security fence
March 2012/Adar 5772
The Jewish Voice and Opinion
constructed by Israel to keep terrorists from entering the Jewish state except at authorized checkpoints. In 2005, Dr. Assaf formally asked the NJ Legislature to “penalize Israel” for, among other things, the Jewish State’s “systematic disregard for human rights, murder of over 15,000 Palestinians, and destruction of thousands of homes.” The punishment demanded by Dr. Assaf was official divestment of “billions from NJ’s public and private institutions [that] are invested in American companies doing business in Israel.” Not Satisfying When Mr. Pascrell’s campaign was
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pressed on whether there would be a direct condemnation of Dr. Assaf’s insinuation that Mr. Rothman was disloyal to the US, a spokesman said that Mr. Klein’s “statement speaks for itself.” Not surprisingly, neither Mr. Rothman’s campaign nor the Jewish community found this satisfying. Noting Dr. Assaf’s participation in Mr. Pascrell’s campaigns, Mr. Keyak called the questioning of Mr. Rothman’s loyalty to America by the Assaf op-ed pieces “serious.” “We are disappointed that Congressman Pascrell refuses to disavow his donor’s ridiculous and unfounded attack,” said Mr. Keyak. S.L.R.
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Rabbi Smith Runs for Congress The Message He chose to run as an independent rather than enter the GOP primary, because he says that the Republicans seem to define themselves “more by what they are against than what they stand for.”
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continued from page 12
While he said he is in the race to win, there is no question he is also eager to bring his message to the 9th District’s voters. He has not given up on the idea of attracting the many voters in the 9th who supported Mr. Obama in 2008—and will
probably vote for him again. “They also want freedom and must be shown that, by accepting government handouts, they are being enslaved and deprived of the very freedom they are seeking,” he said. Rabbi Smith believes that financial independence is not just for individuals, but for countries as well. He sees American aid to Israel as the conduit used by Washington to pressure the Jewish state to continue surrendering land. “The aid is not Israel’s lifeline. It is used as a means to force Israel to accept an indefensible position. The Democrats, by accepting the so-called two-state solution, which was forced on Israel, have left Israel to negotiate with the terrorist Palestinian Authority regime,” he said. Connecting He maintains that while leftists often do not understand his arguments, such as his opposition to same-sex marriage because it is essentially “anti-life,” his policies resonate among the 9th’s workingclass voters. The author of two books on the Torah and the Seven Noahide Commandments, Rabbi Smith said he has tremendous respect for his solid, hardworking prospective constituents. “They don’t understand why the Jewish community supports politicians who demand that Israel negotiate with the Palestinians or who support policies that are essentially anti-moral and antiG-d,” he said. Tea Party Support He certainly won supporters at a recent Tea Party meeting in the district, where one questioner told him, “The world wants to get rid of Israel because Israel represents the laws of G-d, which the world does not want to adhere to.” While Rabbi Smith does not doubt that many politicians throughout the world feel just that way, he believes the majority of voters in the 9 th District do not. “They want a representative who will read every page of every bill that comes to his desk—and I will do that. To stay independent, we must all vote independent,” he said. S.L.R.
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March 2012/Adar 5772
Qarmout Seeks Senate
continued from page 13
for Mr. Kyrillos. The poll also found that only about 20 percent of voters had even heard of Mr. Kyrillos. Even among Republican voters, he is virtually unknown. According to the poll, only 12 percent of Republican voters had a favorable opinion of him, and 84 percent were indifferent. The two poll findings showing Mr. Menendez’s less than 50 percent support and Mr. Kyrillos’s lack of name recognition were good news for Mr. Qarmout. Giving Israel Technology Mr. Qarmout has already distanced himself from Mr. Menendez in one important way. While Mr. Menendez’s record on Israel has been very positive, prompting him to break with President Barack Obama on more than one occasion, at the beginning of March, the Senator told a Jewish audience in Livingston he would not vote for the US to provide technology “immediately” to Israel in the event of a conflict. A veteran member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee who has voted for increased aid to Israel and urged the PA and Hamas to recognize the Jewish state’s right to exist, Mr. Menendez told the Jews in Livingston he “might” vote to give Israel such technology at a later
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stage in the conflict. Mr. Qarmout said he would vote to assist Israel in any way possible in such a situation. “Israel,” he said, “does not need anyone’s permission to exist; as our friend and ally, it deserves our fullhearted help.” Public Prayer A real estate investor and a popular professor of psychology and sociology at the County College of Morris, Mr. Qarmout broke into the public arena two years ago in his hometown of Newton, NJ, on the issue of public prayer. The American Civil Liberties Union opposed the City Council’s practice of opening meetings with the Lord’s Prayer. Although the town’s attorney favored dropping the opening invocation altogether, Mr. Qarmout argued that the prayer was less about promoting one religion over another than it was about holding onto tradition. Eventually, the council sided with Mr. Qarmout, but decided to emulate the US Congress and ask local clergymen representing various faiths to recite the opening prayer, a tradition still followed in Newton. Term Limits The experience prompted Mr. Qarmout’s
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decision to run for office with the support of his wife, Jennifer, and their four children, a son and three daughters ranging in age from 3 to 11. “We need new people to represent us in Washington. Our political system encourages the same people to serve term after term and yet we expect different results. That’s just madness,” he says. The solution he proposes is term limits, but Mr. Qarmout rarely makes suggestions unless he has already worked out the particulars. He thinks two six-year terms in the US Senate and six two-year terms in Congress should more than suffice. “Politicians should serve and then return home. That’s what the Founding Fathers had in mind. They didn’t promote the concept of professional politicians,” he says. Anti-Christian Prejudice As a Christian born in a Muslim country, he understands well the many reasons immigrants have for wanting to come to the US. His mother, who was born in Jaffa, and his father, who was born in Lod, were among the many Arabs who fled Israel in 1948. Eventually, they went to Jordan, where the vast majority of the population
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Qarmout Seeks Senate is, like them, Palestinian. However, they were always acutely aware of their minority status as Christians. In the mid-1970s, they and their nine children immigrated to the United States. Asked if he had any memories of anti-Christian persecution, Mr. Qarmout says only that “being Christian in any Arab nation is not easy.” “My parents brought us to the United States seeking increased opportunities, democracy, and freedom,” he says. American Success Story Settling in Moonachie, the family resided in a motor home that they kept in the parking lot of the plastic factory in which his father and older brothers worked. Police officers sometimes noticed
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the motor home parked between the trucks and told the family to move. “If we were poor, we never knew it,” he says. After several years of hard work and systematic pooling of family funds, they purchased a home in Paterson. A few years later, they opened a convenience store in rented space in Riverdale, NJ, and moved to Pompton Lakes. Before long, the family had convenience stores in several locations. They also placed a high value on education. Bader Qarmout began his academic career at the County College of Morris, where he now teaches, and went on to earn a Bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Hawaii and a Master’s
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degree in social work with a drug counseling minor from Rutgers. “I understand the attraction America holds for so many who live in oppressive and repressive countries and I do not fault anyone who wants to better their lives and the lives of their family members by coming here. But, just as my parents came here legally, so must others, and those who disregard our laws to gain entry to this great nation corrupt the very principles they risk life and limb to acquire,” he says. Immigration Reform But he does have a proposal, copyrighted as the “Qarmout Immigration Reform Plan.” The first step, he says, is to secure the US borders, not with just a few guarded entrances and exits, but with “a wall, a fence, and smart technology that takes care of underground tunnels.” “We need to ask the Israelis for advice and instructions,” he says. The next step in the plan is to require all illegal aliens to register. Those who do not have criminal records in the US and who work would be entitled to stay, but, each week, for ten years, they or their employers would be required to deduct $20, which Mr. Qarmout sees as “a fine for breaking our laws and coming here illegally.” After ten years, the illegal immigrant would have paid $10,000, and would be eligible for a Green Card, which can be the first step towards citizenship. Mr. Qarmout figures that $10,000 times approximately 18 million illegal aliens amounts to almost $180 billion. According to Mr. Qarmout, leaders in the Latino community who have seen his plan like it. Pro-Life He has applied the same thoughtful attention to other policies he would promote as Senator, such as a balancedbudget amendment (he says Mr. Menendez voted against two of them in 2011), and pro-life measures. “We have turned into a society that looks the other way when it comes to defending life, whether it is the unborn, the elderly, or even victims of accidents. I believe life is sacred and must be honored,” he says. He is convinced that government policies do just the opposite. “Why is it that
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OHEL Gala Draws Capacity Crowd & Honors Assemblyman Gary S. Schaer More than 1,000 friends,
supporters, government and elected officials, and rabbinic and business leaders showed their strong support and friendship for OHEL at the agency’s 42nd annual gala held in Manhattan last month. The dinner, entitled “Cherish the Children,” was an occasion for tributes to OHEL’s honorees, including NJ Assemblyman Gary S. Schaer, winner of OHEL’s Legislator of the Year award, and the children and families serviced by the agency. More than 20 percent of OHEL’s budget comes from direct fundraising. With sharp and steady decreases in government funding, OHEL’s annual gala— its most significant fundraising event of the year—has become increasingly important in helping OHEL provide programs to a growing number of individuals and families who rely on the agency every day of the year. The agency’s nearly 2,000 dedicated and diverse staff and volunteers help thousands of tri-state area Jewish residents every day. OHEL opened its doors
more than four decades ago with a single program, Foster Care. Today it operates more than 30 programs and 100 residences serving individuals throughout NYC, Nassau County, Northern NJ, and South Florida. Political Leaders At the gala, Mr. Schaer was recognized for having successfully fought to expand religious rights in New Jersey by authoring and helping to enact six measures to make life easier for the religiously observant. One of his bills requires employers to provide time off for religious holidays. Students and professionals like attorneys and physicians who are required to take standardized tests in New Jersey, including those for state licensure, must be given alternative dates if there is a conflict with religious holidays. Just recently, Mr. Schaer introduced legislation that would require the New Jersey Department of Children and Families to place foster and adopted children in homes that reflect the child’s religious heritage. Those participating in the gala included Sen Charles Schumer (D-NY), Sen Robert
Qarmout Seeks Senate a simple visit to the doctor can cost hundreds of dollars, but an abortion can be obtained for barely $200? The government
Menendez (D-NJ), Rep Steve Rothman (D-NJ), Rep Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Rep Bob Turner (R-NY), Chairman Lou Stellato of the Democratic Committee of Bergen County, NYS Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, NY Assemblyman David Weprin, NY Assemblywoman Rhoda Jacobs, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Comptroller John Liu, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Councilman Lew Fidler, and many others. Several political leaders mentioned their close association with OHEL and acknowledged its exemplary work. Many said it was aweinspiring to see a capacity crowd during such challenging financial times. Moving Highlights As part of the program, Mel Zachter was installed as co-president, along with Moishe Helman, of OHEL Bais Ezra. Mr. Zachter’s installation was conducted by his close friend, NYS Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. A highlight of the evening was a presentation by the Miller family of Milwaukee, who flew to New York to participate in
the gala. Shira Miller, who has Down’s syndrome, was a camper last summer at OHEL’s groundbreaking, fully-integrated Camp Kaylie. Shira’s mother, Terry Miller, spoke of her experience visiting the camp with her husband, Todd, and seeing firsthand their daughter’s integration and acceptance with the other campers. As a special surprise, Shira’s best friend from camp, Dina Fisher, attended the gala, too, allowing the girls an emotional reunion. Camp Kaylie, the Dr. Joe Silver Campus, is possible through the efforts of Harvey and Gloria Kaylie, Speaker Silver, and Elly and Brochie Kleinman. OHEL’s co-president, Mr. Hellman, explained that support for the agency’s work is more important now than when it began 42 years ago. “On behalf of every life that has been elevated during the last 42 years, and every life we will elevate in the years to come, we want to express our profound pride and gratitude to our generous partners and friends,” he said. Y
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is promoting abortion, and this procedure must never be used as simple birth control,” he says.
Free Market Whenever possible, his solutions encourage free market reforms. He would repeal what he calls “Menendez/Obamacare” in favor of interstate insurance commerce, which would allow NJ residents to buy their insurance from any firm in the country rather than simply those approved by the government for them; and he would encourage job creation by lowering taxes for potential employers. He would allow American companies to repatriate their foreign profits, paying no taxes, in exchange for spending five percent of what the tax
amount would have been, on hiring new employees and/or making capital improvements, thus creating thousands of jobs. While Mrs. Qarmout says her husband offers a combination of “book smarts and street smarts,” Mr. Qarmout says it is most important to bring “common sense solutions to the table and not just politics as usual.” “Our country is in crisis and it’s at times such as these that we need leaders in Washington who possess common sense and business experience, not another lawyer or career politician,” he says. S.L.R.
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What Does “Iran” Mean in Farsi?
On Purim and we read the story of how Haman, a descendant of Amalek, persuaded Achashveros, King of Persia, to destroy the Jews. But it’s also the story of our time. Once again, Persia threatens to destroy the Jews, only this time its name has changed. We no longer call it Persia, we call it Iran. Do you know why? From the moment Hitler came to power in 1933, there was a love fest between him and Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Persia. The shah was enamored with the concept of the Aryan master race—especially because Nazi racial theorists referred to Aryan origins in the Proto-Indo-European lineage of Persia. So intense was the shah’s identification with the Third Reich that in 1935 he—can you believe this—renamed his ancient country “Iran,” which in Farsi means “Aryan.” From that point on, Iranians were constantly reminded that their country was bonded with Nazi Germany for all time. During the war years, Iran became a haven and headquarters for Gestapo agents and German operatives. In Tehran’s marketplace, it was common to see placards that declared, “In heaven, Allah is your master. On Earth, it is Adolf Hitler!” And so how can the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad now deny that the Holocaust ever happened when his nation is named for Hitler’s master race? Let there be no mistake, the ultimate agenda of Iran and Hamas—like that of Hitler’s Germany—is not simply the destruction of Israel, but of the Jewish people. Knowing this, it is shocking that, in the wake of the recent accidental burning of the Quran in Afghanistan, our President apologized to the Muslim people who were murdering our troops. Shame on him for making the Quran more important than American and other human lives. And shame on all of us for not realizing we need to get out of Afghanistan now. An apologist for Obama asked me how I would react if foreign soldiers burnt Torah scrolls in Israel. I said that no matter how I felt, I would not murder people. I then I asked my questioner, “Would you?” Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg Edison, NJ
Saving Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani
In Iran, Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian citizen, preached to a congregation of 400 before he was arrested by Iranian authorities in October 2009. For ten years, he had been a pastor at a number of Iranian’s quiet “house churches.” He was originally charged with protesting, but those charges were changed to apostasy and attempting to evangelize Muslims. Last month, it was reported that the Iranian courts may have issued an execution order for Pastor Nadarkhani, a married father with two children, Daniel, 9, and Yoel, 7. This is another example of the radical element of Islam and its unbelievable violations of human rights and freedom of speech. Even the thought that someone could be imprisoned and possibly executed, simply for his faith, is totally barbaric. The civilized world—especially Christians and Jews— cannot just stand by and do nothing.
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Letters to the Editor My organization, Stand Up America Now, and I demand the immediate release of Pastor Nadarkhani. If he is executed and not released, we will call for an international burning of Qurans and images of Mohammed. There is very little that the civilized world of Christians and Jews can do to protest the inhumane activities of Islam. This form of protest will obviously get the attention of Iran and Muslims who may have influence with the Iranian government. I can be reached at info@standupamericanow.org Dr. Terry Jones Stand Up America Now Gainesville, FL SLR: Dr. Jones, pastor of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, is running for President of the US. It was he who sparked controversy in 2011 when he burnt a Quran inside his church, setting off massive riots in the northern Afghanistan city of Mazari-i-Sharif, which left ten UN officials dead. While Pastor Jones says he is trying to prevent future Christian persecution, Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the Christian Evangelical-affiliated American Center for Law and Justice, called Dr. Jones’s protest “an unnecessary stunt and an abuse of freedom” that has not taken into consideration the number of Muslims who also die when their radical co-religionists react violently. Mr. Sekulow’s organization has prompted the Obama Administration, European Union, and members of Congress to voice concern for Pastor Nadarkhani.
Bashing Republicans to Bring Unruly Democrats to Heel?
In your February issue, Democratic State Senator Paul Sarlo bemoans the baseless attacks on Steve Rothman by fellow Democrat Bill Pascrell, quoting extensively from David Nir in “The Daily Kos” [Letters to the Editor, February 2012]. Hypocritically, part of this quote included a baseless attack on Republicans: “If you’re doing precisely what Republicans wished you do, should you really be doing it? The answer is obvious.” Does Mr. Sarlo agree with this statement? If not, why would he have quoted it? In my opinion, this comment was as out of place as it was unnecessary, and merely serves to further divide people. In point of fact, if we’re talking about what Republicans wish for Democrats, verbally bashing each other is not on the list. Mr. Sarlo is in a position of authority and leadership. What does it say about him that he bemoans baseless attacks when it’s Democrat vs. Democrat, but has no problem with baseless attacks against Republicans? I hope the Jewish Voice and Opinion will give Mr. Sarlo the opportunity to apologize for his hypocrisy and his quoting these remarks about Republicans. Ben Feigenbaum East Brunswick, NJ SLR: He has it now.
What’s Good for Rothman Should be Good for Pascrell
I really don’t understand why Bill Pascrell and other liberal anti-Israel Democrats, including the New York Times and the Bergen Record, are making such a big fuss about Steve Rothman’s
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“Thought Is the World of Freedom” (R’ Dov Ber of Mazeritch) decision to remain in the NJ district he has represented all along, the 9th, which happens to be where I live. Rothman has been my Congressman for as long as I can remember, just as he has been for 54 percent of all voters in the newly redistricted 9th District. If he had done what Pascrell and other anti-Israel liberals wanted, he would now be the Democratic candidate opposing Republican incumbent Scott Garrett in the newly redrawn 5th District, where, because of the new redistricting, about 21 percent of Rothman’s former constituents will now be represented. So it’s 54 percent of us (Rothman’s constituents) versus 21 percent of us. On the other hand, Pascrell, who so cavalierly said if he had been given the choice, he would have opposed Garrett “in a heartbeat,” should put his candidacy where his mouth is. The newly redrawn 11th District has 33 percent of Pascrell’s constituents, while the newly redrawn 9th has 43 percent. If Pascrell is so eager to present challenges to sitting Republicans, why isn’t he running against Republican incumbent Rodney Frelinghuysen in the 11th District? Pascrell surely has as much right to do this as he thinks Rothman had against Garrett. Maybe it’s because both Rothman and Pascrell recognize that the 9th is—and will continue to be—a Democratic stronghold, and neither wanted to commit political suicide in a Republican stronghold. That’s fine. What’s disgusting is for the liberals to make believe it was all right to insist that pro-Israel Rothman should fall on his sword for them, while preserving anti-Israel Pascrell’s seat in Congress. Katie Schwartz Fort Lee, NJ
After Coming on Strong, Obama Told Israel: Never Mind
The morning after President Barack Obama secured the Democratic nomination in 2008, he told members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) that “Jerusalem will be the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.” This year, he treated AIPAC members to language designed to make them feel more secure about his intentions towards Iraq. In case of trouble, he said, “I have Israel’s back.” On the first occasion, it took him less than 24 hours to make sure Israel’s enemies understood he really did not mean it. “Undivided Jerusalem” meant only there shouldn’t be “barbed wire” running through it.
It took him less than 48 hours to explain that “having Israel’s back” is in no way “a military doctrine that we were laying out.” No wonder pundit Bill Kristol, co-founder of the Emergency Committee for Israel (whose Internet videos on Obama, www. committeeforisrael.com, are a must-see) said the President’s statements before AIPAC “have a remarkably short shelf life.” The first problem is the President himself. He has a very long history, on virtually every issue, of saying what an audience wants to hear. He speaks to the center, then his actions go to the left. As Kristol said, “For Obama, being pro-Israel seems to be campaign strategy, not a foreign policy.” His statement was weakened by the fact that he told Israel “I” have your back. I wish he would have said Israel’s back was protected by the United States, including its diplomats, its financial system, its military, and its political leaders. Even before he backtracked, his comments were insufficiently strong to impress the mullahs of Iran, the world’s most dangerous thugs. On Israel’s behalf, he could have said that the US would act as military support for the Jewish state, but he didn’t. He could have told Iran that, after waiting three years for them to negotiate, or allow nuclear inspectors into the country, or accept the chance to buy the uranium they would need to generate nuclear energy, time is up. He could have given the Iranian mullahs an ultimatum, But he didn’t. In short, he gave the mullahs no reason to change their behavior. At is press conference, Obama criticized the Republican presidential candidates for war mongering with Iran. That was a message of weakness if there ever was one. I hope and pray that I am wrong; that the mullahs change their ways. I hope Obama really does have Israel’s back. Mark Meyer West Orange Republican Friends of Israel mm@republicanfriendsofisrael.org The Jewish Voice and Opinion welcomes letters, especially if they are typed, double-spaced, and legible. We reserve the right to edit letters for length and style. Please send all correspondence to POB 8097, Englewood, NJ 07631. The phone number is (201) 569-2845. The FAX number is (201) 569-1739. The email address is susan@jewishvoiceandopinion.com
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A Kosherica Cruise Means Wonderful Ports of Call in Luxury By Yochanan Gordon
Although the weather in
2012 hasn’t been brutal, a cruise to warmer climes— with the opportunity to shed extra winter layers, relax, and reenergize—is an experience not to be missed. I would not spend it any way other than with Kosherica. Having just returned from our second cruise with the Kosherica Family, I did not think the first one could be equaled. But the team outdid themselves and created a highly successful cruise to the Caribbean Islands. The itinerary included Great Stirrup Cay, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, and Cozumel, Mexico. A day and half at sea both ways capped off a weak of nonstop fun and relaxation, and provided the needed touch to get us back into reality as
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we make our way to Pesach and spring. What’s It Like? Since I returned, everyone asks me, “What is it like going on a cruise?” They just don’t understand the dynamics of a cruise and its daily ports of call. It is not just a week at sea with onboard amenities and entertainment. The best answer is: In order to understand the benefits of a cruise as opposed to having to plan every detail of a vacation yourself, you just have to experience it. Having experienced it twice now, I think is the best way to travel. This is not only my opinion. I know I can speak for all 400 guests who participated in this trip to the Caribbean, as well as the guests who keep coming back for other Kosherica Cruises. In fact, most people
who commit to traveling just once with Kosherica come back multiple times. They recognize there is no more rewarding way to travel. It is an experience that repeatedly exceeds one’s expectations. Highlights Some of the highlights of this past trip, which are typical of all Kosherica getaways, included the new friendships developed during the week; the unparalleled food service with cholov Yisrael and pas Yisrael cuisine that is second to none; and nightly lectures and show-stopping performances by some of the brightest and most accomplished cantors and musicians. During the week-long vacation, Kosherica guests have the opportunity to interact with and get to know these entertainers and scholars in a more personal way than merely
seeing them on a stage in a concert setting. This was our first time in the Caribbean and Mexico. To be honest, had we gone by ourselves, without the various excursions offered by the host cruise line, we would have had great difficulty maximizing the time we spent at each port of call. A Kosherica cruise offers the opportunity to visit the world’s most exciting and exotic destinations without physically or spiritually compromising the comfort and luxury of an all-inclusive vacation. For a complete list of Kosherica’s upcoming travel opportunities, look at this month’s Jewish Voice and Opinion ad; visit Kosherica on the web at www.kosherica.com; or give them a call at 305-6952700. You owe it to yourself, and you’ll thank me. Y
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Live Where You Can Walk to Shul
Syrian Scorecard
northern Syria. In all of these countries today, the Kurds are persecuted by the current ruling regimes. In 1957, the KDPS (Kurdistan Democratic Party of Syria) was founded. The Syrian central government had never recognized the Kurds as a separate entity, thus the KDPS remained an underground organization. In 1960, a number of its leaders were imprisoned. In 1961, after the dissolution of the UAR (United Arab Republic, a union between Egypt and Syria), the Syrian government decided to “recognize the Kurds” as a separate entity, and, in the summer of 1962, conducted a special population census of the predominantly Kurdish province of Jazira. In short order, all identified Kurds were stripped of their Syrian citizenship and declared “aliens.” At the same time, a media campaign was launched against the Kurds with slogans
cont. from page 23 such as “Save Arabism in Jazira” and “Fight the Kurdish Threat.” Identity Threat These policies coincided with the beginning of Mustafa Barazani’s Kurdish uprising in Iraq and the discovery of oilfields in the Jazira province. In the summer of 1963, Syrian forces joined with the Iraqi military in attacking the Barazani-led revolt, which had aspired to reestablish an independent Kurdistan. From the mid-1980’s through the early 1990’s, following an unsuccessful revolt against the al-Assad regime by the Sunnis, the Kurds, too, clashed violently with the regime, which resulted in mass arrests and killings of Kurdish-Syrian civilians. While the current al-Assad government’s continuing persecution of the Kurds is part of its general suppression of any form of political dissent, it continues the previous policy
of repression because a separate Kurdish identity is still viewed as a threat. The Muslim Brotherhood’s involvement in last year’s socalled “Arab Spring” in Tunis, Egypt and Yemen, prompted the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood to ratchet up their opposition to the al-Assad Alawite regime. The protests and riots were immediately met with al-Assadstyle ruthless suppression. Hapless Innocence As late as March 27, 2011, Mrs. Clinton was still citing bipartisan characterizations of Mr. Assad as “a reformer.” But by November 18, she reversed herself, telling ABC News that while Washington had heard “what Assad said about what he wanted to do for reform,” when, as part of the “Arab Spring, people actually demanded some freedom and their rights, he responded, as we have seen, very violently.”
Considering Syrian history in the past 30 years alone, why is she surprised? Syria is in the throes of a continuing quasicivil war between the Sunni majority, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, and the minority Alawite-controlled regime, led by the al-Assad clan, with various minor religio-ethnic players scattered throughout the field. If the al-Assad regime falls, it is not merely the al-Assad family that will reap what it has sown. The entire Alawite population will be subjected to persecution by the Muslim Brotherhood-led Sunnis as they attempt to turn back the clock to a modern version of the Ottoman period. Bashar al-Assad is fighting for Alawite dominance and survival. Secretary Clinton and her colleagues must realize that life is not a Hollywood movie and Syria isn’t a western country. Syria is a serious mess and there is no happy ending on the visible horizon.Y
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